The organisation set the promotion of short sea shipping between Italy and Croatia as one of its priorities, citing the Italian ports of Ravenna and Ancona and the Croatian ports of Bakar, Zadar and Ploce.
The founding meeting was attended by representatives of 17 Croatian port authorities, shipping companies, forwarding agencies and hauliers.
The purpose of establishing this organisation was to promote cooperation with similar associations within the European Union and to draw up projects that would compete for EU funding.
The State Secretary for Maritime Affairs, Branko Bacic, said that one of the reasons for establishing the association was to ensure that some of the cargo shipments to the southeast Balkans, which are now bypassing Croatia, were redirected via Croatia, particularly shipments from Italy.
He added that the aim of such organisations was to relieve European road routes and redirect some of the cargo and passenger transport to maritime transport.