Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia
Most of Colombia's general cargo trade has been handled by four public ports: Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Santa Marta on the Atlantic coast and Buenaventura on the Pacific coast. These four ports were concessioned in 1993 to regional port "societies" established under company law. These societies are responsible for contracting with port operators for the use of facilities and supervising the facilities' use - they do not provide services directly. New laws abolished restrictive labor practices and have allowed stevedoring services to compete freely at each port. The liberalization of labor practices along with the privatization of port services has resulted in large and rapid improvements in productivity, lower fees for port users, and very attractive returns for the concessionaires. Productivity levels are higher than in most newly privatized ports in other Latin American countries - where in many cases the ports have been privatized with limited competition. The improvements have been realized with low initial investments, though recently the port societies have gone beyond investing in shoreside equipment and are starting to invest in infrastructure expansion.
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
1998-12
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| Subjects: | PORTS, PRIVATIZATION, ECONOMIC COMPETITION, CARGO HANDLING, CONCESSIONS, PORT MANAGEMENT, PORT FACILITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE PRIVATIZATION, CONTAINER TERMINALS, INVESTMENT RETURNS, PRODUCTIVITY AUTHORITY, BERTHS, BULK CARGO, CARGO, CONTAINERS, DREDGING, PORT, PORT DISTRICTS, PORT INFRASTRUCTURE, PORT OPERATORS, PORT PRIVATIZATION, PORT SECTOR, PORT SERVICES, PORT USERS, PRIVATE SECTOR, PUBLIC PORTS, SHIPPING, SHIPPING LINES, STEVEDORES, STEVEDORING, TERMINAL OPERATORS, TEU, WAITING TIME, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1998/12/441563/port-privatization-competition-colombia https://hdl.handle.net/10986/11509 |
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| Summary: | Most of Colombia's general cargo
trade has been handled by four public ports: Barranquilla,
Cartagena, and Santa Marta on the Atlantic coast and
Buenaventura on the Pacific coast. These four ports were
concessioned in 1993 to regional port "societies"
established under company law. These societies are
responsible for contracting with port operators for the use
of facilities and supervising the facilities' use -
they do not provide services directly. New laws abolished
restrictive labor practices and have allowed stevedoring
services to compete freely at each port. The liberalization
of labor practices along with the privatization of port
services has resulted in large and rapid improvements in
productivity, lower fees for port users, and very attractive
returns for the concessionaires. Productivity levels are
higher than in most newly privatized ports in other Latin
American countries - where in many cases the ports have been
privatized with limited competition. The improvements have
been realized with low initial investments, though recently
the port societies have gone beyond investing in shoreside
equipment and are starting to invest in infrastructure expansion. |
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