'Connect 2025' strategic plan: ambitions for further development as a European port

'Connect 2025’ is the strategic plan which sets out the North Sea Port ambitions for developing the cross-border port area in the years to come. Key to this development is North Sea Port’s commitment to economic development and employment, sustainability and climate, and to build a sound financial foundation. The port authority will play a decisive role as connector in their special relationships with companies, public authorities and local communities.

The port authority focuses on

  • 3
    core tasks
  • 8
    programmes
  • 7
    spearhead sectors

3 core activities

The port authority will focus on its three core tasks to realize the strategic plan 'Connect 2025':

  1. The provision of port infrastructure and vacant industrial sites
  2. Nautical services
  3. The role of the director bringing together different players in the port area

7 spearhead sectors

North Sea Port has a highly diversified portfolio of activities. In the first place the port authority aims to maintain and further consolidate existing commercial and industrial activities and the associated employment.

It is also strongly committed to growth in the circular economy and the energy sector. These sectors with growth potential are also woven into the seven spearhead sectors.

Customer intimacy

The port authority is dedicated to customer intimacy – North Sea Port wants to be the connector, building relationships based on trust that look to the future. In doing so, the port authority aims to meet companies’ specific needs and offer tailor-made solutions. This differs from the approach of most seaports: delivering the lowest possible cost or being the leader in a particular market segment.

The way in which North Sea Port aims to interact with residents and the regional population also fits with the philosophy of customer intimacy: staying in touch, taking each other's interests into account and seeking consensus.

Customer intimacy also means building powerful alliances and partners doing what they are good at.

Shareholders set three tasks

Under the 'Connect 2025’ strategic plan, the port authority has been set three clear tasks by the eight shareholders: to focus on economic development and employment, sustainability and climate, and a sound financial foundation.

1. Economical development and employment

The benefits to society are not secured directly by North Sea Port as the port authority, but by the companies to which it plays host. North Sea Port needs these companies in order to achieve its shareholders’ objectives. It does so by improving the business climate for companies.

The first task is to generate employment within a larger, high- value and future-proof network of companies. It is the companies, new and established, that create the jobs and invest in sustainability. The key is to attract the right companies to the cross-border region, keep them there and enable them to grow. That means looking forwards, innovating and diversifying.

2. Sustainability and climate

The second task is sustainability and climate: less CO2, more nature, more circularity and efficient use of space. The companies in North Sea Port feel the pressure to become more sustainable. The port authority wants to differentiate itself by helping them achieve their sustainability aims and setting a good example. Growth and sustainability will go hand in hand.

3. Sound financial foundation

The third task is to be financially healthy. The shareholders do not participate in North Sea Port in order to make money. North Sea Port therefore does not have a dividend target but instead aims for an operating result that allows it to be financially healthy.

A balance between a commitment to employment, sustainability and solid finances will provide a foundation for the further development of North Sea Port as a European port.