June 2, 2009 -- The Caribbean Shipping Association (CSA) has announced improvement to its annual Caribbean Port awards, effective this year.  The changes were announced at the 8th Caribbean Shipping Executives Conference held May 18 to 20 in Cartagena, Colombia.

The CSA’s Port Awards Committee, in its continuing review of this competition, recommended to General Council further improvement. It was decided that:

1. all member ports of the Caribbean Shipping Association will now be automatically involved in the annual Caribbean Port Awards. This replaces the present situation in which ports decide from year to year, whether (or not) they will enter the competition;

2. the CSA will review the performance of all ports, using objective data, (much of it gathered from port users). This data will support information and statistics the CSA gathers from the ports themselves. This means that the Port Awards adjudication committee will use all information available to it to compare and contrast the operations of ports in the region;

3. in addition to the two top awards Best Container Terminal and Best Multi-purpose Terminal (which any of the eligible ports can win), there will also be special awards recognizing areas of performance. There will therefore be Special Awards which recognize outstanding performance in specific aspects of port operations. The adjudication panel will be making special awards which recognize: (1) port efficiency and productivity; (2) dependability in operations; (3) security; (4) safety; and, (5) specific initiatives towards growth and development.

The adjudication process will have the CSA interacting with the ports. In this interaction, the committee will be able to gather information from the ports themselves which, together with the information from port users, will assist the adjudication process.

By establishing the annual Caribbean Port Awards in 1987, the CSA made the bold move to encourage and promote port development in the region. The annual Caribbean Port of the Year competition encourages and promotes port development, efficient and secure port operations. It recognizes those ports that have sustained high levels of productivity while maintaining programmes for on-going development of human resources and effective management systems.

he Caribbean has all types of port and terminal operations, of varying sizes, handling different kinds of business. There are large highly capitalized, technology-driven ports and there are small ports, some more advanced technologically than others. There are transshipment container terminals, multi-purpose facilities and bulk terminals; and, there are ports which are essentially cruise ship ports. All these ports are at various stages of development. The selection process of the annual Caribbean port awards is therefore a highly complex exercise.

Over the past 20 years, the CSA has revised the adjudication process a number of times in order to keep the competition relevant. For example, in 2003, the event was split into two sections so that multi-purpose ports would not compete against container terminals.