In commemoration of the inauguration of the Expanded Panama Canal on June 26th, 2016, the Embassy of Panama to the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Mission to the European Union, held on June 22nd at the Sofitel Europe Hotel in Brussels, Belgium, the event ¨Panama Expands its Doors to the World¨ cohosted with Belgian Companies: Jan De Nul Group, DEME, Tractebel Engie and IMDC.
The event consisted first of an intimate conversation with representatives of the Belgian companies, Jan De Nul Group, DEME, Tractebel Engie and IMDC, who each shared their experiences working on the expansion project.
The conference began with welcome remarks from H.E. Dario Ernesto Chirú, Ambassador of Panama, who started by mentioning the implications and impact the new set of locks will have on Panama and the world.
He also shared briefly history of the Canal, including its transition to Panamanian control on December 31st, 1999; and precedents of the expansion project, which started on October 22nd, 2006, when through a referendum the Panamanian people made the decision to build the third set of locks of the Panama Canal, which started its construction on September 7th, 2007. The Ambassador concluded his words stating that on June 26th, 2016, after nine years of hard work, we will open the third set of locks, and forever change global transit and trade.
The floor was then handed to Mr. Jan Groeninckx, Product Director for Ports and Waterways of Tractebel Engie, who shared the role his company and their subsidiary IMDC, took on optimizing the usage of energy and water for the operations of the Canal.
Mr. Wouter Borghijs, Senior Manager of the Americas for DEME followed with an explanation of the various stages and type of materials encountered in the dredging works for the expansion project, in which millions of cubic meters of sediments and volcanic rocks had to be dredged.
Jan de Nul Group, Mr. Dirk Van Rompaey, Director Civil Works took the stage as the final guest speaker, and explained his company´s dredging and excavation works for the construction of the locks as a member of the Grupo Unidos por el Canal Consortium and the management of the environmental impact, especially the conservation of flora and fauna of the area.
Guests were afterwards invited to attend the photo exhibition and cocktail reception in celebration of the Inauguration of the Expanded Canal.
For more information:
Panama Canal Expansion: https://micanaldepanama.com/expansion/
