The partnership between the Port of Genoa and two Chinese ports under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will remain intact despite the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, a spokesman of the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority told Sputnik in an interview
GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2020) The partnership between the Port of Genoa and two Chinese ports under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will remain intact despite the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, a spokesman of the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority told Sputnik in an interview.
Under the Belt and Road Initiative, with which Italy partnered in spring 2019, Genoa has "sister" agreements with the Chinese ports of Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
"From the point of view of partnership with the Belt and Road initiative and sistership with other ports, nothing has changed. Of course, [the industries] in Shenzhen and all the Hong Kong area are basically stopped. So if they don't produce goods, the volume [of shipments] will be lower in the next months, but our position on BRI does not change, neither it does for our partnership with Shenzhen and Guangzhou ports. We hope that this problem with coronavirus will be resolved in a few months and we hope that all the traffic will be normalized as soon as possible," the spokesman of the port authority said.
The Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority oversees the ports of Genoa, Savona and Vado Ligure, which together rank as Italy's leading port cluster.
The official added that the Port of Genoa would be ready to respond to emergency situations on cruise vessels should such need arise amid the spread of the coronavirus.
In recent weeks, the whole world has been watching the developments on the virus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship near the Japanese port of Yokohama. The liner was placed under quarantine for two weeks after it was discovered that a former passenger had contracted COVID-19. Out of the 3,711 passengers and crew on board, nearly 700 have been infected as of Monday.
"Of course, this is a complicated situation that stressed all the ports around the world, I think. ... We hope something like this never happens here in Genoa, but I think the port will be ready," the spokesman said.
He added that, in the event of an emergency, both the port and the whole city, particularly the hospitals, should be ready to respond.
"They [the city] need to have enough beds and so on. But from the Port Authority point of view, we just follow instructions from the health ministry and Capiteneria [higher authority above the port authority]," he added.
There are currently over 77,200 confirmed COVID-19 cases in China, according to WHO statistics.
Over the weekend, the disease started spreading rapidly in northern Italian regions. According to the Italian Health Ministry, as of Monday evening, there are nearly 230 confirmed cases in Italy, with most of them concentrated in Lombardy region (Milan and surroundings). There have been seven fatal cases. In Liguria (Genoa and surroundings), which neighbors Lombardy to the south, there are 139 persons under quarantine.
