After the jeopardy of the early 1970s, which saw IAPH react to the prevalent economic headwinds by forming a foundation, the association entered a period of expansion. By August 1973, UNCTAD had recognised the association as a non-governmental consultative body. Following recognition by ECOSOC in 1966 and IMCO (later IMO) in 1967, this was the third international body to which the association could submit recommendations. IAPH directors were appointed as liaison officers to expedite lines of communication with these organisations. Meanwhile, the work of the association’s committees became more specialised and ambitious. At the Singapore edition of the conference in 1975, a new committee was established to increase membership levels and elevate IAPH’s global prestige, while at the Houston Conference in 1977, a special committee on community relations was established to study methods of ‘achieving community understanding of the role of ports’. By the time delegates gathered at the Casino de Deauville near the Port of Le Havre in France for the 1979 conference, IAPH’s special committees were meeting monthly and generating significant policy outcomes. The theme of the Le Havre conference (which attracted nearly 500 delegates from 66 countries) was ‘the Future of World Ports’. The keynote was delivered by Russian-American economist Wassily Leontief, the 1973 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. In his address, Leontief noted that the volume of world trade would ‘probably quadruple between the years 1970 and 2000’ and that ‘a similar increase in capital investment is necessary, and can be expected to bring commensurate benefits.’ His detailed presentation – which covered port investment methods, fluctuations of major cargo, increases in containerisable cargo, and port efficiency – made a deep impression on the audience; the question-and-answer session that followed lasted for nearly an hour, as delegates turned their thoughts to the dawn of the 21st century. The deaths of founding fathers Gaku Matsumoto in 1974 and Chujiro Haraguchi in 1976 had signalled the end of the organisation’s infancy, yet IAPH was approaching its quarter-century with vision, confidence and a growing international reputation.
