Last week IAPH managing director Patrick Verhoeven and strategy and communications director Victor Shieh met up with secretary-general Masahiko Furuichi and our Japanese colleagues at the IAPH office in Tokyo as part of the implementation of the new organisational structure. They set out planning for 2024, which will include major upgrades to both IAPH and WPSP websites, the digitisation of the membership directory and major membership outreach projects. Patrick and Victor were also accompanied to meet senior representatives of the Japanese Ports and Harbors Association and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Tokyo. Next stop was Kobe, where the IAPH delegation met with the Kobe City Government’s Port and Harbor Bureau team to discuss planning for the #IAPH2025 World Ports Conference which will be held there to coincide with the association’s 70th Anniversary. It will also mark the 30th anniversary and recovery of the city since the Great Hanshin Earthquake which devastated many parts of Kobe, including the port. It was in Kobe that the first international negotiations were held back in 1952 to establish the International Association of Ports & Harbors, including at the city’s University.
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IAPH colleagues at the Tokyo office (above) and the University of Kobe (below)
