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 &qu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gaviria, Juan
Format: Viewpoint
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1998/12/441563/port-privatization-competition-colombia
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11509
id okr-10986-11509
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-115092021-06-14T11:02:54Z Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia Gaviria, Juan 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 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. 2012-08-13T15:15:44Z 2012-08-13T15:15:44Z 1998-12 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1998/12/441563/port-privatization-competition-colombia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11509 English Viewpoint: Public Policy for the Private Sector; Note No. 167 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Viewpoint Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean Colombia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic 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
spellingShingle 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
Gaviria, Juan
Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Colombia
relation Viewpoint: Public Policy for the Private Sector; Note No. 167
description 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.
format Publications & Research :: Viewpoint
author Gaviria, Juan
author_facet Gaviria, Juan
author_sort Gaviria, Juan
title Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia
title_short Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia
title_full Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia
title_fullStr Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia
title_full_unstemmed Port Privatization and Competition in Colombia
title_sort port privatization and competition in colombia
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2012
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1998/12/441563/port-privatization-competition-colombia
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11509
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