It is not a pleasant thought that the Port of Gioia Tauro is in the news only in case of big blows against drug trafficking and that its importance not only for Calabria, which owes much of its GDP just to it, but for the whole of Italy is neglected. It is primarily right to point out that the organized crime has well understood how to leverage the infrastructure, producing direct underground economy to strengthen its apparatus, putting the economic freedom first and the democratic life of each country back to the wall. Fortunately, there is the work of well-trained magistrates, as Nicola Gratteri, who taking office from less than a year, has recently given a further blow to drug trafficking, this time by the prosecutor of Catanzaro as Chief Prosecutor, after all those attacks already inflicted in the past by the public prosecutor of Reggio Calabria as a deputy prosecutor. Therefore, if the judges work and get results so that the Port may become known not only for being the port of the Ndrangheta, it is necessary that those who have administrative responsibilities begin to value what we can define one of the largest infrastructure in the south and in Calabria, intervening with targeted policies to cope with the onslaught of competition coming from countries located on the Mediterranean coast, ready to take advantage of every little flaw (the term says it all) that opens up. But what are the strong points of the Port and what prevents its development? First of all, the Port of Gioia Tauro was planned as a port of Transhipment, which is the load transition from one ship to another, typically with unloading and reloading in port. This is typical of the hub (or transhipment) ports, namely traffic terminals that do not require a direct connection to the earth system as it passes from the containers to the shuttles that distribute products to local destinations. And there are many countries in the world that from the ocean take advantage of the port of Gioia Tauro, which anyway insists on a territory whose network of ground transportation is not cutting edge and limits the potential of the infrastructure. Also we cannot forget that from a geographical point of view, Gioia Tauro has a great location because it is located in the center of the Mediterranean between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, in a sea that, in spite being a small area, houses a large traffic of goods (think of the non-renewable energy and especially oil) intended mainly to Europe. It therefore seems important that to the forceful action of the judiciary, committed in taking control of the port away from the ndrine that hinder its development course, must be added the awareness of the characteristics of the port of Gioia Tauro, which could make it a great driving force for development not only in Calabria but of the entire country.

Fabio Guarna

italian version : https://www.soveratonews.com/2017/02/12/porto-di-gioia-tauro-non-solo-porto-di-ndrangheta/