Port utilization process starts

Parliament's Commerce and Production Committee is to begin debating the bill on the utilization of Greece's regional ports on Thursday. When the law is voted in, state sell-off fund TAIPED will launch the process to utilize the 10 ports after a long period of discussions.

The draft law effectively concedes to TAIPED the right to "subconcede" activities in the ports of Alexandroupoli, Corfu, Elefsina, Igoumenitsa, Iraklio, Kavala, Lavrio, Patra, Rafina and Volos. The vote will also signal the ratification of the old concession contracts to the authorities that currently operate the ports. This was necessary because the subletting contracts TAIPED will seek in future will also have to be ratified by law by the Parliament.

The concession process is expected to begin with the ports in northern Greece, namely those of Alexandroupoli and Kavala. In both cases the objective is...