ANCONAV (The Romanian Shipbuilders Association) – represents the interests of shipyards and manufacturers, equipment and raw materials distributors in Romania on national and international level. On the eve of this day ANCONAV hosted Ukrainian Maritime Cluster to know the about the situation in Ukraine suffering from unprovoked aggression and elaborate the approach for restoration of Ukrainian maritime industry with certain help of Romanian shipbuilders.
On the 12th of August 2022 the festive day the 87th Edition of ANCONAV Ukrainian Maritime Cluster had a chance to visit General Assembly of ANCONAV and present the Ukrainian companies of Marine Industry to Romanian maritime community.
This remarkable event has started with the speech of the Economy Minister of Romania Mr. Florin Spataru who pointed out the focus for development of Romanian maritime industry for the upcoming years. All the main trend of European blue economy agenda have been reflected in his messages including decarbonization, new type of fuels, renewable energy solutions, prevention of pollution, environment protection, etc. The Economy Minister clarified the aspects of governmental support of the shipbuilding industry and indicated the types of vessel required by the internal and external market. Mr. Florin Spataru finished his speech with greetings and left the assembly, however he found the time to talk to the Executive Director of Ukrainian Maritime Cluster – Olena Zhukova.
After the Economy Minister had left the meeting, there was a series of presentations from the members of ANCONAV. This presentations dealt with the overview of the product range such as International Paint representatives, and global human resource distribution report. We would highlight the overview of grant project available for Romanian members of association with indication of the budget, scope of works at high level and other details which are extremely necessary to apply for the grant. Such overviews are of a great importance for the Romanian maritime community, and it gives the entire picture of the grants available at the current moment making possible startups, ecological and scientific projects.
Executive Managing Director of ANCONAV Mr. Gelu Stan in his turn made a presentation with macro economical figures showing the global trends in the prices, types of the vessels ordered by different Clients, market demarcation between European and Asian countries, productivity and many other aspects of the global economy development. Nevertheless he was trying to figure out the role of Romanian shipbuilding industry and find the way for the Romanian shipbuilding industry for future development.
Special guest – Executive Director of Ukrainian Maritime Cluster (UMC) Olena Zhukova – introduced the Cluster to the audience, gave brief information about the Cluster foundation and history of its development, described the cluster initiatives, inspired with the prospects of cooperation in the Black Sea region, indicated the projects being held at a moment. The next part of the presentation was devoted to the key players of UMC in shipbuilding and repair, naval subcluster, engineering and RDI, services and suppliers, science and education, associates, as well as partners for the grant projects. And one important event was highlighted about the signing of MoU with UkrSudProm Association, according to which mutual membership would involve about 50 members of Ukrainian Marine Industry.
One more important topic was also touched by Olena – participation in 4BIZ grant project and our appreciation of the efforts of our Romanian partners and friends to keep UMC in this project even in spite of cruel war lasting for more than half a year. No wonder that the topic of unprovoked aggression and oppression of Ukrainian people couldn’t be left aside, and Olena described the amount of destruction in our native city with the sort of video. The last one made a great impression on the members of Association and after the presentation Olena has been proposed to start cooperation with Romanian companies in order to save Ukrainian maritime community. Her speech raised interest in Romanian companies, who asked for contacts after the Assembly.
The last speaker, Prof.Doc. Eden Mamut, Secretary General, Black See University Network emphasized that he had never seen such impressive presentations on the assemblies like Olena Zhukova did this time, and he would never forget it. From his side he reminded the audience about the importance of cooperation with Ukrainian enterprises and support in overcoming war and recovery period.
The presentation of Prof.Doc. Eden Mamut was fully dedicated to the 4BIZ project, describing the tasks of the objectives, participants, workpackages. The 4BIZ project is coordinated by the Black Sea Universities Network and brings together 9 partners directly involved in the implementation Consortium and 17 associated partners. The aim of the project is to develop a collaboration framework that will bring together blue economy stakeholders in EU and eligible non-EU Black Sea countries. The project has already started on the 1st of June 2022 and will last for two years.
Other important detail is the unofficial meeting and short talks with our partners from Romania as well as Damen representatives that also participated in the Assembly.
As we have already mentioned on August 18, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. the Brokerage event “Joint Venture Opportunities between Companies from Romania and Ukraine for Boosting Blue Businesses in Maritime Transport” took place online as part of the initiatives implemented by the 4BIZ project. Follow our news to find details of this event!