The close integration of production clusters, infrastructure and logistics services on land and in ports is nothing new. In Italy, instruments such as SEZs and FZs have recently been introduced, but it does not seem that the lesson of Amsterdam and its Logistic Park has been fully understood. In fact, it is not just a matter of regulations and tax simplifications, but of conceiving the three components (production, land logistics and ports) in an integrated way, which end up producing a gigantic production “plant” that has the port as its main entrance and exit door. This integration naturally has a strong technological component to make frictionless first the capture and interchange of data and then the handling of goods. From this point of view, a low-latency and highly flexible network with 5G is proving invaluable for ports and operators moving rapidly towards digitisation. But goods must first be produced, both in existing and new factories and plants. New vertically integrated logistics players can be an interesting vehicle for this. 

Main topics:

• production-logistics cooperation and symbiosis
• intermodal development
• cargo transport
• fast corridors and customs interoperability
• SEZs and FTZs
• port digitisation and automation
• cargo traceability
• cyber-physical security