On October 1-2, the First International Port Cities Forum was held in Svetlogorsk (Kaliningrad Region, Russia). Its participants included representatives of government authorities, the port and transport industries, business, financial and development institutions, as well as the expert community. The two-day forum program comprised business discussions, presentations of innovative solutions in the field of maritime logistics, and a youth intensive entitled «Port Cities – Youth at the Helm.»
The BRICS+ Association of Cities and Municipalities on the site was represented by its Honorary Chairman, the Mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin.
The forum focused on the port as a driver of development, inextricably linked to urban space, the industrial sector, energy, the environmental agenda, and human capital.
Participants discussed the development of the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor and the Northern Sea Route, multimodal logistics, investment, public-private partnership, as well as international trade and cooperation among the BRICS countries. Separate discussions were devoted to fisheries clusters, transport security, workforce training, and the digitalization of ports, as well as to finding a balance between the development of the port economy and the quality of the urban environment.
The key event of the second day of the forum, October 2, was the expert discussion «Port and City: From Infrastructure to Quality of Life». The Honorary Chairman of the Association presented the Association’s international experience and spoke about the potential for inter-municipal cooperation within the BRICS+ framework.
The forum was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev; Advisor to the President of Russia and Special Presidential Representative for International Cooperation in the Transport Sector Igor Levitin; Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexei Chekunkov; and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexander Grushko.
Among the foreign participants were representatives of government, business, and the port and transport industries from 9 countries: Bahrain, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
The Port Cities Forum became a logical continuation of the BRICS countries’ course toward deepening trade and economic cooperation. For the states of the association, ports are not merely infrastructure but the foundation of mutual trade: it is precisely through seaports that a significant share of turnover between Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Russia, and the new BRICS members passes. It is precisely the BRICS port cities – Shanghai and Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai and Murmansk, Durban and Jakarta – that today constitute real hubs of global trade and centers of attraction for investment, technology, and human capital. It is at the municipal level that the key objectives of the port agenda are addressed: modernization of infrastructure, digitalization of logistics, workforce training, and the balance between industrial development and the quality of the urban environment.
