The Madrid-Vicálvaro freight terminal; The railway highway between Abroñigal (Madrid) and the port of València or the intermodal logistics center of Valencia-Fuente de San Luis are three of the 14 projects that the central government is developing in the Mediterranean corridor with an impact on freight traffic in the axis. Madrid-Valencia.
They were presented yesterday by the Government commissioner for the Mediterranean corridor, Josep Vicent Boira, in a round table in which shipping companies such as Baleària and MSC, the company Sending and the Port Authority of Valencia appeared. Boira pointed out that “the center and the east of the peninsula are linked” and recalled that its airports, industrial areas and the three leading ports, Valencia, Algeciras and Barcelona, ??are connected.”
The strong point of both territories, as highlighted by all participants in the second Community of Madrid-Valencian Community business summit held in the Spanish capital, is undoubtedly economic reciprocity. Madrid exports mainly through the Valencian port, the port becomes strong with the exports that arrive, more by road but also by rail, from the Madrid capital. “The importance of the axis is unquestionable,” said Miguel Garrido, president of the Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM).
The vice president of Conexus, Asunción Martínez, spoke of setting a “common goal.” And the companies, cited by the Conexus lobby chaired by Manuel Broseta, talk to each other on a one-on-one basis and yesterday they showed their good understanding. Before the round tables, everyone spoke, both the president of the CEIM, Garrido, and the president of the Madrid Chamber of Commerce, Ángel Asensio; as well as the president of the Valencia Chamber, José Vicente Morata, and the president of the Valencian employers’ association, Salvador Navarro. And they all highlighted the relevance of bilateral relations between both communities.
Navarro, furthermore, went one step further by putting the focus on the Valencian agenda and remembering, taking advantage of the loudspeaker of being in Madrid, that the Valencian Community is poorly financed: “We need your complicity so that the review of the expired model can begin.” asked the Valencian businessman, also vice president of the CEOE.
Equally vindictive was the president of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, when he pointed out that the radial axes are “compatible with the transversal ones and absolutely necessary.” Utor, who said that to go to Barcelona he passes through Madrid due to the ease of connections, defended that the Mediterranean corridor is “a pending issue that we must resolve together” and pointed out the “historical debt” that is owed to the Valencian Community “and with the entire coast of the Mediterranean.”
Francisco Lorente, president of MSC, intervened alongside Utor, the shipping company that a few weeks ago announced that it was abandoning the València ZAL project and the same one that is pending the northern expansion of the port, news that could be imminent. For Lorente, the expansion “will allow Valencia to be a benchmark port,” while he recalled that 70% of its cargo is the flow of goods between Valencia and Madrid. Mar Chao, president of the Port Authority of Valencia, also said that the expansion is “critical for the infrastructure to be a leader” and pointed out that the port is “a strategic product for Valencia.”
Theirs were just some of the voices that demanded in Madrid the “necessary” expansion of the port of Valencia. The most forceful, that of the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, who in his intervention and in his attention to the press highlighted its urgency. “It is a strategic infrastructure of the country, not only Valencian, but also Castilla y León or Castilla-La Mancha. We have been claiming it for a long time and saying that it is sustainable, compatible and necessary,” said Mazón. Also the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, who was listening in the stalls with the rest of the Valencian delegation, trusts that “business and political pressure will bear fruit because there is no excuse to block the expansion.”
The announcement of the visit to the port of Valencia that the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, will make next Thursday ended up covering the debate on the expansion with a more topical sheen, which was also answered in Madrid with banners opposing it. that a small group of protesters from the Ciutat-Port luncheon spread out in front of the Madrid casino.
From Thursday’s meeting, Mazón hopes to get Puente’s commitment: “This community of open doors cannot allow anything other than the minister saying on Thursday that there is a clear way to expand the port of Valencia,” said Mazón. He listened to Ayuso and, above all, the many companies that travel along the A-3 every day to load and unload at the port docks.
