ESPO highlights Valenciaport’s commitment to communication and the strengthening of the city-port relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The awards highlight the initiatives of the port community to facilitate economic activity and to make visible the efforts of the population during the pandemic with initiatives such as #AlPieDelCañon or #ImagenesImborrables.

Valenciaport is competing for the award for the Social Integration of Ports together with Gdansk, Hamburg and Vigo.

The commitment of Valenciaport and the port community to facilitate economic activity and to highlight the efforts of society during the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the finalist projects in the 13th edition of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) Awards. Valenciaport, together with Gdansk, Hamburg and Vigo, will compete for the award in the category of Social Integration of Ports. The jury has selected these four nominations from a total of eleven submitted on the theme of this year’s edition: “The role of the ports in the recovery of the city and the local community”.

The ESPO Award 2021 will be given to the managing body of the port which has best played a role in the recovery from the current crisis and has contributed to improving the prosperity of the city, the local community and the region. Specifically, the jury valued the project “Valenciaport, making the difficult easy”, which shows the resilience and commitment of the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), in collaboration with the port community, with all its agents, companies, administrations and workers to overcome difficult times, such as those experienced during the pandemic, for the benefit of society. The project has also benefited from the intangible complicity between the port and the city through individuals. ESPO thus recognises the communication with the citizens during the hardest moments of the pandemic and the strengthening of the city-port relationship in an extraordinary situation.

Through this project, new bridges of port-city dialogue have been opened and it has been demonstrated how through collaboration it is possible to maintain mutual progress, overcome the worst of the crisis, share emotions and manage public resources for the benefit of the sectors most affected by COVID-19. The APV initiative has had the involvement of the entire port community and society, both nationally and internationally.

Thus, among the initiatives of this project is the campaign #AlPieDelCañon, a solidarity action which, through small videos, sought to promote the recognition of both the health professionals and the logistics sector who, from the shadows, ensured that such an essential activity for the population did not appear during the pandemic. The campaign received more than 100 videos in 14 languages with more than 100,000 views and a reach of more than 500,000 people on the different social networks.
A project that continued with #ImagenesImborrables, an action that received nearly 2,000 images sent in by the citizens of Valencia and the surrounding area, illustrating how society has dealt with the Coronavirus pandemic from different points of view, reflecting aspects such as the actions of health workers, teleworking, confinement and adaptation to de-escalation. A selection of these images was shown in the exhibition held in the Clock Building and in a book in which the ports of A Coruña, Castellón, Alicante and Puertos del Estado participated.

From a social point of view, it is also worth highlighting the work carried out by APORTEM-Puerto Solidario, a project made up of some thirty associations, associations, institutions, companies and individuals linked to the Valencian port logistics sector, which helps families and children at risk of social exclusion and the fight for the environment. During 2020, APORTEM did a great deal of work among the most disadvantaged schools and groups to introduce hygiene and protection against COVID-19.

In parallel to these actions, the APV provided suppliers and service providers with 10 million euros in urgent and compensatory measures to alleviate the economic effects of COVID-19. Specifically, it allocated 7.33 million euros to a total of 250 companies to provide liquidity to companies carrying out work for the ports of Gandía, Sagunto and València. In addition, it advanced 2.64 million euros in bonuses pending for 2019 to its customers and implemented the reduction of fees.

The winner of the 13th ESPO Award will be announced on 9 November in Brussels. The shortlisted projects will be presented on the ESPO website in the coming weeks and the eleven entries will be presented in a special brochure to be published on 9 November.