The Ukrainian Maritime Cluster (UMC) delegation took participation in the International Workshop on: “The Cultural Dimension of the Ports from the Black Sea and Danube Region”. Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN), in collaboration with University of Bucharest, Institute of Advanced Studies for Culture and Civilization of the Levant and National Company Administration of Maritime Ports Constanta had organized this workshop dedicated to Romanian Navy Day. It took place in the Passenger Terminal Hall, Constanta Port and was held in hybrid mode that allowed to increase the auditorium and listen to the speakers that had not managed to come.
Though the event should have been dedicated to the celebration of Romanian Navy Day and intended for promoting the collaboration between port administrations from the Black Sea and Danube region, in fact it turned out to be more than the standard brokerage event where facilitating the presentation of successful projects and the promotion of new partnerships for project proposals usually happened. Even the agenda has been modified due to the impressive presentation of the Executive Director of UMC Dr. Olena Zhukova at the opening of the workshop as well as great speech of former President of Romania Prof. Dr. H.E. Emil Constantinescu, President of Institute for Advanced Studies in Levantine Culture and Civilization Center of Excellence of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences. Generally the participants invited were port administrators, experts, decision makers, government representatives, representatives of local authorities, academics, students, researchers, ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions of EU and neighboring countries and other international organizations, journalists.
The unique approach of Prof. Dr. Eden Mamut, Secretary General of Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN) made possible to combine in on event the presentations and discussions of the key players in culture and academic science, business and production, mass media and government. Even more the agenda has been enhanced by the detailed information about Ukrainian maritime community, new possibilities for cooperation and the latest information about the participation of UMC in the grant project 4BIZ coordinated by the BSUN and prospect of further interaction meeting “The Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea”. It has been set as a follow-up to the commitment of the 2018 Burgas Ministerial Declaration “Towards a Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea”. The agenda focuses on activities related to “blue economy”, targeting a sustainable economic development of the region.
At the very beginning of the workshop Prof. Dr. Eden Mamut invited the moderators for the first plenary section of the workshop, and we were proud to see Olena Zhukova together with Mrs. Georgiana Talaba, Counselor of Romanian Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism. Though the keynote presentation “The Museum of the Constanta Port” was announced to open the event, it was decided to start with UMC presentation by Dr. Olena Zhukova. Before starting the presentation, Prof. Dr. Eden Mamut has commented our visit and emphasized about the necessity of support of the Ukrainian maritime industry as well as Ukrainian people suffering from the bloody war unleashed this year. He admired the personality of Olena Zhukova, her commitment and strong desire to lead Ukrainian maritime community to the sustainable future, minimizing the impact of war on the regional players.
The presentation of the UMC touched the aspects of Cluster’s foundation, brief history and activities, members and partners. Then followed the description of key players of Ukrainian maritime industry, indicating their attractive features for the international cooperation. Special attention Dr. Olena Zhukova paid to the destruction of university and college and asked about donations for the reconstruction of our educational institutions. You can find the objects of donation via the next links and participate in fundraising:
- Mykolaiv Defense Cluster
- National University of Shipbuilding
- Mykolaiv Polytechnic College
- The Center of Social Initiatives “Uzhhorod”
The short movie about our native city, Mykolaiv, and the effect of numerous strikes impressed the audience greatly. Complete silence has reigned the hall thinking of horrors of war with the only desire to stop it and never come back. Other speakers of the workshop provided their presentations and ideas followed by discussions perfectly moderated by Prof. Dr. Eden Mamut. Among them were representatives of government – R. Adm. Vergil Chițac, Mayor, Municipality of Constanța, and Mrs. Georgiana Talaba, Counselor of Romanian Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism, and Florin Goidea, Deputy General Director, National Company of Administration of Maritime Ports, Constanța. From Bulgarian side we’ve heard – Dr. Zoya Stoyanova, Senior expert – Strategic planning, Digitalization and Sustainable Development, Burgas Municipality. Besides the speeches by directors of national museums, libraries have set the points for interconnection of the cultural heritage with business.
It’s important to note that the next session was moderated by representatives of the University of Bucharest and met the presentations of Institute of Ethnography and Folklore of the Romanian Academy, University of Bucharest and other educational institutions. The speech of Prof. Dr. Eden Mamut – “European Cultural Route on Port Cities in the Istro-Pontic Space” gave a full overview of the development of port cities and the problems facing nowadays as consequences of old policy. Another presentation from BSUN by Ms. Andreea Presura was dedicated to the project 4BIZ and other grant projects available for the participants in order to set up activities related to “blue economy” and targeting a sustainable economic development of the region.
Special guest, former President of Romania, Prof. Dr. H.E. Emil Constantinescu, President of Institute for Advanced Studies in Levantine Culture and Civilization Center of Excellence of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences has made a long speech summarizing the ides and discussion of the fruitful day. He emphasized that only mutual efforts of business, culture, education could bring us synergy effect and bring the way to safe and sustainable future. Mr. President also indicated that Romania and other Black Sea countries had all the possibilities to become independent and respectable key player in the world considering their natural resources, business activities and cultural heritage.
Watch the video of the conference via the link.