It is a great success. We expect the interest of international industry and financial investors

- says Waldemar Buda, Deputy Minister for Funds and Regional Policy and Government Plenipotentiary for Public-Private Partnership.

A new deep-water container terminal will be built at the entrance to the current port in Gdynia. The value of the investment will amount to about PLN 3.5 billion. It will be the largest government project implemented so far under the public-private partnership formula.

This is a very important project for the PPP market. The implementation of this investment in the formula of a public-private partnership shows that today, in times that are not easy for the economy, we effectively use various sources of financing public investments. Despite the pandemic, we are not slowing down the work, and the procedure for selecting a private partner was announced in accordance with the announced deadline

- noted Deputy Minister Waldemar Buda.

The Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy as the central unit for public-private partnership in Poland is involved in preparing this project for implementation in the PPP formula. The expansion of the Port of Gdynia is one of the investments resulting from the obligations assumed in the "Government Policy on PPP market development".

The investment is to be a deep-water port capable of serving the largest ships up to 430 metres long. The port, equipped with an inter-modal railway terminal, will be used for container handling. 130 kilometres of railway lines will be built in order to facilitate access to the External Port. There will also be a place to store components of offshore wind farms. The capacity of the terminal, according to initial assumptions, may amount to as much as 2.5 million TEU(twenty-foot equivalent unit), i.e. units used to determine the capacity of ports.

This is an investment which will create new jobs. There will be 700 of them in the port alone, and over 4 thousand in the industrial environment. As analyses have shown, the project will benefit not only the city and region - Gdynia, the Tricity metropolis and the Pomorskie Voivodship - but also the State Treasury. The investment is beneficial in many areas

- stressed Deputy Minister Buda.

On 15 November 2019, the Gdynia Seaport Management Board signed a consultancy agreement with a consortium of three companies - EY, Databout and Domański Zakrzewski Palinka. Their task is to support the management board in the process leading to the conclusion and implementation of the contract with the private partner. The work of the advisors is co-financed by the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, and a team of MFiPR experts participates in the work of the advisors together with the Port of Gdynia team.

On the basis of a tender announced on 5 November, a private partner will be selected in 2023, with whom the Port of Gdynia will sign a PPP agreement. According to the plan, the construction works will begin in 2025 and, together with the stage of equipping the terminal, will last until 2028, when the investment is planned to be completed.