La nuova Autorità portuale del basso Tirreno: una opportunità per l’Area dello Stretto

The article starts from the “National Strategic Plan of the Harbours and Logistics”, approved by the Italian Government in July 2015,setting out the development strategies of the Italian port system and providing, among the other things, the redesign of the governanceof the Italian port system. The old existing 24 Port authorities are replaced by 15 Authorities of port- system, in which different portsare combined in order to create an efficient port system able to compete and succeed in the overall system of commercial traffic inthe Mediterranean Sea. Within this framework, the creation of a new Authority is provided, which incorporates the former CalabrianPort System with the old Port Authority of Messina. In this way we are going to create a large port system, centred on the area of theMessina Strait, comprising 10 ports, including the transhipment port of Gioia Tauro, which represents the core of the entire portsystem, and the port of Messina, the most important passenger port in Italy and one of the most important as regards the cruisesector. The article analyses the development perspectives that this system can offer with regard to two important aspects: the realizationof the project -already imagined in the late '60s- for an Integrated Metropolitan Area of the Strait, including the two metropolitancities of Messina and Reggio Calabria; the transformation of the port of Gioia Tauro, from an exclusively transhipment port into anIntermodal Logistics Pole, which will be the central strategic hub of a large logistics platform of the Strait Area, which implementationshould be a great opportunity for the development of the entire Mezzogiorno.