Panama and Port of Hamburg sign MoU on strategic co-operation

The agreement was signed by Panama's minister of maritime affairs and administrator of the AMP Jorge Barakat and by Jens Meier, the Port of Hamburg Authority executive president.

The document will allow both institutions to cooperate on issues such as "planning, management and port legislation, environmental protection, sustainability and IT solutions," said the Panamanian entity.

The port of Hamburg is one of the most important container terminals in Europe. Panama, on the other hand, is a strategic logistic enclave thanks to the interoceanic canal, which connects more than 140 maritime routes and 1,700 ports in 160 different countries and accounts for about 6% of world trade.

The port of Hamburg will assist the AMP in the development of its first cruise port on the Panama Pacific entrance of the canal which it will administrate as a public cruise terminal. The $167m project was awarded recently to a consortium formed by Belgium’s Jan de Nul and China Harbour Engineering Corp [CHEC]. The construction of the cruise terminal is expected to conclude early 2019.