The Brazilian Secretariat for Ports – SEP and APEC- Antwerp/Flanders Port Training Center, from Belgium, signed, in 2013, a Technical Cooperation Agreement in order to strengthen training activities of the port sector in the areas of management, port services and operations, commercial and financial strategies, port works and infrastructure and inland navigation. The partnership involves training courses in both countries.

The first training activity within the scope of the Agreement took place last March. Managers who work in Brazilian ports took part in the seminar presented by Belgian specialists in the Port of Santos, located in the State of São Paulo.

The technical staff and managers from SEP, from several dock companies, enterprises which administrate Brazilian public ports, from ports delegated to States and Municipalities by the Brazilian Government as well as from private port operating companies were all adequately trained and presented the latest best practices used in the port sector.

The management training program will also encompass ports in the capitals of the States of Espírito Santo (Vitória), Ceará (Fortaleza), Bahia (Salvador), Pará (Belém) and the Port of Paranaguá in the State of Paraná. The seminars are scheduled to take place in the following dates: 

 As part of the bilateral Agreement, last April 15 port workers were also sent to the Port of Antwerp, the largest port in Belgium and second most important in Europe, for training in crane simulators, reach stackers and other port equipment of great size. 

They were selected by the labor Unions and Federations and they will work as instructors of other port workers in Brazil in order to multiply the techniques learned in the operation of container cranes, fork lifts, reach stackers, lashing & securing, among other port activities.

The knowledge obtained will be transmitted to port workers through a pilot project to be carried out in the Center of Port Excellency located in Santos and in the Technological Vocational Center in the Port of Fortaleza.
The third and last part of the program includes the creation of APEC do Brazil (Antwerp/Flanders Port Training Center in Brazil) which will be a training center for port workers and managers.

The program is being carried out in partnership between SEP and the Ministries of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) and Brazilian Navy. The objective is, in the long range, allow the obtained knowledge to be multiplied to all port community through the National Program for Access to Technical Knowledge and Employment (Pronatec), under implementation by the Brazilian Government.

---

Patrícia Mesquita
Special Advisor

Secretariat of Ports
Presidency of Republic of Brazil
+55 (61) 3411 - 3702
[email protected]