Hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Udine, last December 2012 was held in the North-Eastern Italian city a meeting during which was presented a study focusing on the Friuli Venezia Giulia port system and the integrated development of regional logistics carried out by the OCDE Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development Office/LEED in Trento, and commissioned by the same local Chamber of Udine.

The study highlights the opportunities given by the advantages of the North-East Italian Region, its geographical positioning at the interconnection of the Mediterranean basin and the Central Eastern Europe area, being the crossing point of traffic flows and priority TEN-T European corridors (Mediterranean Corridor (former Corridor 5) and Adriatic-Baltic Corridor), the presence of various (road and intermodal) logistics centres (for handling and storage) with good level of services offered, and the Port of Trieste specificity that that represents an international logistics hub and a port gateway on the Adriatic.

At the same time, the study also focuses on the urgent needs of the local regional logistics system to deal with the new post-crisis new conditions and the need to reposition on global market, overcoming main weaknesses to face the perspective of new growing internal market demand and the competition deriving from the proximity of two external markets (Austria and Slovenia) and the increasing effectiveness of the close Veneto region logistics system.

Some suggestions originated from the study conclusions are conveyed principally to the requirement to strengthen the regional market offer by:

a) implementing the port system capacities and adaptability,

b) realising the essential port infrastructure connections with the local logistics network,

c) supporting the enforcement of the logistics network by offering better services (in term of costs cut, supply chain processes rationalisation, integrated services for logistics, etc.)

 and

d) enhancing the support to the clusters that characterize the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region productive structure (among which are the Coffee cluster in Trieste and the Agro-food park of San Daniele).