The transformation of transport renders Greece as international hub

The transformation of the country’s transport system is now apparent and the developments around it, increasingly rapid. Just 5 years back, we would see that everything was operating on the basis of the Public Sector, with a few exceptions.

Now, 2017 bids farewell and 2018 is coming up, amid a completely transformed environment, with new domestic and global players from the private market, whose moves will determine the country’s emergence as one of the world’s major transport hubs.

The privatizations

The Port of Piraeus is now privately held, with its annual growth being continuous, thanks to the Chinese giant, COSCO, which operates it. In just a few days, the Port of Thessaloniki will be also privatized and pass under the management of the French multinational company, CMA.

The monopoly of commercial itineraries, for the time being, belongs to the recently privatized, TRAINOSE. TRAINOSE was sold to the Italian FSI, which aspires to turn the, once, inflexible public company into a modern railway carrier. 14 Regional Airports also passed under the management of the German Fraport, which will invest more than 400mio euros to upgrade them and improve their efficiency and commerciality.

With regard to the country’s new motorway network, Attiki Motorway, Olympia Motorway, Moreas Motorway, Ionia Motorway, Nea Odos, Kentriki Odos, Aegean Motorway and Rio-Antirrio Bridge are private and led by major Greek and European technical groups (e.g. ELLAKTOR, TERNA, J&P AVAX, INTRAKAT, VINCI, HOCHTIEF etc.).

Athens’ International Airport, “El. Venizelos” is also private and under the management of a Canadian Fund, which, since its assumption, has been constantly increasing the Airport’s passenger traffic, with multiple records indeed, especially in the past 2 years.

A new reality

In this reshaped transport market, Greece can hope that it will attract investments that can promote growth, generate profits and generally reinstate the country’s status to what it should always and deservedly have been: a transportation hub in the crossroads of 3 continents.

What the Chinese started in Piraeus a few years ago, making a medium-capacity European Port rally to the top, competing directly the Ports of Amsterdam and Hamburg, can now be expanded to the case of the country’s new network of covered motorways and the under-refurbishment Regional Airports and of course, the railway. Especially for the latter, 2 new players have already entered the freight transportation sector, competing for their share in market that is expected to boom in the near future.

In a few words, with the market’s forces being liberated, the country can draw significant advantages. And this would not be just wishful thinking. It is a realistic scenario that, if it is served methodically, could bring the long-desired sustainable development that Greece needs while it contributes drastically to the reduction of unemployment.

Last but perhaps most crucial factor is the Logistics sector. The absence of large-scale Logistics Centres has been a result of a bureaucratic and oversized public sector that was not looking for opportunities but for maintenance. This is changing as well. But let’s make something clear; all this emerging reality, does not mean that there is or should be a total absence of the State. On the contrary, the State must be present and active in order to support, monitor and develop further the new environment, by collaborating with all these new players and advancing transportation infrastructure when is needed.

The new Airport in Kasteli Heraklion (Crete), complementary projects on the motorway network and the implementation of the Railway Egnatia’s vision could additionally be very useful tools for the transport world in the country, which, with the appropriate policies and necessary conditions, could become the new pillar of the country’s economy for the years to come.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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