DEVELOPMENTS IN THE BALTIC MARITIME MARKETPLACE
First published 1997 by Ashgate Publishing
Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright Michael Roe 1997
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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 97074454
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-61854-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-429-46108-8 (ebk)
It would be nice to claim that this volume was entirely down to me, but clearly that would not be true. Lots of others helped me along the way. My colleagues in Gdansk, in particular Janusz Zurek, but also all the other Polish authors, should be thanked for their efforts. Without them the text would have been very thin. My colleagues in Plymouth also merit consideration including Kevin Cullinane as Head of the Centre, Neal Toy as facilitator, particularly with respect to visitors, and Marie Bendell who provided around half of the word processing and a considerable amount of common sense. Ex-students at Plymouth - Chris Dent and Marius Rostock Olsen provided high quality research material with which to work, whilst Gillian Ledger provided her last of many years contributions to the Centre through additional word processing and a considerable amount of down to earth advice. Sarah Markham and Anne Keirby at Ashgate have been endlessly patient yet again and made the whole process virtually painless. Various individuals in Poland also helped the Editor in a variety of ways but I will feature only two. In particular, the staff at the Hotel Europejski in Warsaw provided traditional East European hospitality just at a time when I thought the old traditions had been lost; whilst the help of Magdalena Zalinska in Lodz in providing access to the real Poland will not be forgotten.
Finally, as ever, thanks must go to two football teams that rarely get a look in at an academic (or practical) level - the nearest; Plymouth Argyle - and the best; Charlton Athletic; and in particular to Liz, Joe and Sin who act as my very own personal supporters club.
Michael Roe
Institute of Marine Studies University of Plymouth
This text is the second in a series of volumes produced in collaboration between the Institute of Maritime Transport and Seaborne Trade at the University of Gdansk in Poland and the Institute of Marine Studies at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. It attempts to build upon the first volume of papers which emerged in 1996 which concentrated upon the early developments in the maritime sector in the Baltic region with particular reference to the changing circumstances that have affected the ports and shipping sector in Poland. In this volume, the focus of attention moves to the changes within the marketplace for the maritime sector ranging across a diverse number of topics including both maritime and land based transport infrastructure.
The situation in the maritime sector in Poland has continued to change very rapidly in terms of attitude and the growth of the private sector, and there have also been a succession of changes in the state sector relating in particular to the status of port authorities and their ultimate ownership. However, at the same time, despite this rate of change there remains a large part of the maritime sector which is resistant to the developments in the industry and which remains locked into the old attitude which centres around a failure to recognise market developments and the need to take a positive and practical stance to customers and competitors if the industry is to survive. At the moment these ex (or in some cases still) state-owned industries remain effectively protected from the dangers of the free market, but for how long?
It is within this context that these papers have been produced to review the situation as seen by those in the industry, academic commentators outside and also from a west European perspective from the United Kingdom.
The first paper by Dobrowolski and Zurek provides a basic introduction into the earlier phases of the economic reconstruction programme that was introduced in Poland following the economic, political and social changes that took place through the 1980s and culminated in the dramatic events of 1989 and 1990. It acts as a forerunner to the discussion in subsequent papers which examines the implications for the maritime sector, of the transformation in the economy that has occurred so far. The authors are both from the Institute of Maritime Transport and Seaborne Trade at the University of Gdansk. Professor Janusz Zurek is the current Director of the Institute.
The second paper, by Kryzystof Dobrowolski alone, examines the processes which have been adopted in Poland to transform the enterprises of the economy into a privatised sector and in so doing provides the basis for the discussion of the maritime sector that follows it.
The paper by Konrad Misztal of the Institute of Maritime Transport and Seaborne Trade takes a specific and detailed look at the situation within Polish seaports and the attempts beginning to be made to transform them as a consequence of the political, social and economic changes of the 1980s and 1990s. In itself, it provides a unique insight into a sector that has been largely ignored in the western press and other published output but which has the potential to develop into a formidable force in the future as transit ports for a recovering and developing Russia and Former Soviet Union.
Janusz Zurek, we have already noted, is the current Director of the Institute in Gdansk and has a long and distinguished history of teaching and research in the field of maritime, and particularly shipping, business. The paper he presents on The privatisation of Polish shipping: present situation and development is an analysis of the situation up to around the beginning of 1995 in the Polish shipping industry with respect to the privatisation process and in particular the events at the state liner operator, Polish Ocean Lines of Gdynia.
The next paper by Krzyzanowski and Skurewicz is a short analysis of the effects of market forces upon the Polish shipping industry at a time of major transformation and in particular looks at the developments in this sector in the early years of economic change around the period of 1989 to 1993. Both authors are attached to the Maritime Research Institute in Gdansk which operates separate from, but in close collaboration with the Institute of Maritime Transport and Seaborne Trade. Krystyna Wasilewska is also from the latter and in her paper on Poland in the Southern Baltic transit market presents an analysis of the role of Polish ports and shipping as part of the Trans European Motorway system linking many of the countries of eastern and southern Europe with those of Scandinavia. The significant issues that stem from this transit role for the maritime sector are discussed in the light of changing economic pressures and market demands. This paper is particularly valuable as it presents one of the few analyses of the role of transit in east Europe and the impact of infrastructural developments - particularly road developments - on the ports and shipping sectors.
