Buenos Aires Launches Incentives for Argentine-Flagged Vessels

During the first meeting of the Buenos Aires Port Council, local authorities announced a program of economic and operational incentives aimed at promoting the use of Argentine-flagged vessels, increasing their call frequencies, and boosting maintenance and repair activities in local shipyards.

In this context, the Government of the Province of Buenos Aires communicated that "among the announced measures, priority berthing for national flag vessels entering port was established, under equal nautical and operational conditions, along with discounted rates for vessels adopting the Argentine flag."

"Additionally, an extra reduction was provided for those that had their last repair, within the previous 12 months, in a Buenos Aires shipyard; and another benefit for national flag vessels that increase the frequency of their calls compared to the average recorded during the previous two years," it added.

Regarding this, the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, indicated that "the formation of this Port Council is the result of years of work in which we have made significant progress to consolidate the province's ports as a system. We made a historic investment, supported the consortia with loans from Banco Provincia, removed abandoned vessels, modernized and digitized the ports, and added equipment and technological systems."

"Today we take another step to consolidate this articulation work within the framework of a Council integrated by all stakeholders to plan, discuss, and integrate the port system. In a complex context, with the absence of a national government that has paralyzed all works, we are here thinking about growth and the future: ports are crucial for the development of our province," he added.

For his part, Augusto Costa, Minister of Production, Science and Technological Innovation of the Province of Buenos Aires, stated that "with the formalization of this council, we are taking a very important step to support the growth of the sector: we needed a forum that represents the entire Buenos Aires port ecosystem so that together we can develop diagnoses, hold debates, and generate appropriate proposals and responses."

Meanwhile, Juan Cruz Lucero, Undersecretary of Port Affairs of the Province of Buenos Aires, commented that "these incentives do not constitute isolated measures from each port administration, but rather are part of a common strategy of the Province of Buenos Aires aimed at recovering national flag participation, strengthening local employment, and generating greater activity in Buenos Aires shipyards."

The Buenos Aires Port Council came into effect in August, is chaired by the Provincial Port Authority and is composed of the presidents of public ports, representatives of private ports, union representatives, and representatives of the various sectors linked to the activity.