The Minister of Cohesion and Regional Development Dr. Aleksander Jevšek and his delegation, and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway, Her Excellency Trine Skymoen, visited the Port of Koper. The meeting was of a working nature, aimed at familiarising the participants with the activities of the SOPOREM project, which is co-financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway with funding from the EEA Financial Mechanism.
This was the first visit to the Port of Koper for the Minister for Cohesion and Regional Development Dr. Aleksander Jevšek. On this occasion, the President of the Company’s Management Board, Mr. Boštjan Napast, briefed him on the port’s operations and business results for the last year and presented key investments and development opportunities. As he pointed out, in the last year Luka Koper has been actively focusing on investments, with priority given to those representing the new development cycle of strategic commodity groups – containers and cars. The company was also successful in obtaining European grants for projects and investments totalling EUR 23 million.
Among other things, the Port of Koper has been given the green light as lead partner to co-finance the SOPOREM project, which will build the second largest solar power plant in Slovenia on the roofs of two sets of general cargo warehouses, with a total capacity of 3 megawatts. In the future, Port of Koper would like to see more projects co-financed with cohesion funds, including those in the field of sustainable development and green transition, as well as digitisation of processes.
The Minister for Cohesion and Regional Development explained that in the future, the co-financing rate for the Western Slovenia Cohesion Region will be higher than it has been so far, and that in the coming years funds will also be available for co-financing projects in renewable energy sources.
The delegation was joined by the Mayor of the Municipality of Koper Aleš Bržan and his colleagues, who presented the activities of the municipality in its capacity as SOPOREM project partner. As part of the project, a solar power plant of smaller dimensions will be built on the roof of the Sonce parking garage in the vicinity of the power plant inside the port, which will be fully financed by the EEA grants financial mechanism.
