Communists join battle for the Algarve's ports

The Portuguese Communist Party in the Algarve said it is wholly against the transfer of the management of the Algarve’s commercial ports to Sines and is to present an alternative proposal to government for the creation of a Port Authority of the Algarve.

"This was a decision that is contrary to the interests of the people of the Algarve due the specific nature of the ports business in the region, the prospects for the development of our fisheries, our industry and our tourism," said the Communists who have rather missed the boat as the time to submit complaints was before the management of the Algarve’s ports was stripped from local hands and given, for reasons best known to Lisbon, to a port authority in Sines, 200 kilometres up the coast.

The PCP’s statement emphasised that the government decision "will deepen further the policy of disinvestment and neglect of the Algarve" and then referred to blackmail which may be a reference to the golden promise by government of grants to repair and extend the docks in Portimão and Faro.

The communists also criticised "the logic of centralising services and skills, closing various regional entities and handing them over to large private interests which are, through a policy of granting concessions, taking over the whole maritime port sector."

The PCP says that the Ports Authority of the Algarve covered "the most extensive ports area in the country" with a jurisdiction that extended from Baleeira in the west to the Guadiana river at Vila Real de Santo António and up to Mértola.

Under this jurisdiction there are 12 fishing ports, plus marinas, shipyards and public maritime services.

"in 2012 the integrated management of all these activities generated for the Algarve Port Authority revenues of approximately €5 million, with a profit of €500,000" claim the PCP which says the best way to run the Algarve’s various ports and marinas is by having a port authority actually based here and not handed over to a distant management with the distinct possibility that it soon will grant a profitable concession to a private company.

The PCP promises to continue the fight against the government's transfer of the management of the commercial ports of the Algarve to the Administration of the Port of Sines and will now present as "an alternative to the government's proposal" a draft resolution establishing the creation of the Port Authority Algarve.

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