Implementation models
Similar to the initiation of logistics center construction, specific implementation models can be distinguished. The models were formulated based on the analysis of existing logistics centers, the synthesis of their results, and the gathered experience of individual implementation consortia.
Italian model
Italian logistics centers share common features that characterize how they were and still are implemented:
1. The construction of logistics centers has the support of the Italian government and is based on government plans, supported by legislative actions.
2. The initiator of the construction of logistics centers is the public sector, with
local and regional governments – city and regional administrations – as well as chambers of commerce and industry, getting involved in the ventures together.
3. A typical organizational form is a joint-stock company, in which the public sector holds over 50% of the shares. The company enables the participation
in the investment by public sector institutions and private companies, ensuring that the former maintain control over the company. This type of company structure ensures the inflow of private capital while simultaneously enabling compliance with the requirements set by the European Union for entities applying for funding.
4. Unlike other models, Italian logistics centers are owners of a significant part of the infrastructure: container terminals, office buildings, warehouses, etc., which they lease to users.
Alongside public sector institutions, shareholders of companies building logistics centers include Italian railways and other logistics operators, carriers and freight forwarders, banks, insurance companies, service companies supporting transport, and others.
Italian logistics centers did not have problems attracting users to occupy them, and the differentiation in the country’s economic development influenced planning decisions that direct further investments in logistics centers to the south of Italy, where economic development and industrial activity of enterprises were significantly lower than in the northern regions of the country.
German model
The German model of building logistics centers, similar to other infrastructure investments, has strong support from the public sector at all levels, and the participation of these institutions is based on federal laws and the laws of the federal states. As part of the adopted master plan for logistics centers, the federal budget participates in financing investments through Deutsche Bahn AG (according to federal law, the federal government owns over 50% of shares in DB AG), targeted subsidies to the budgets of federal states, and targeted subsidies and repayable loans for specific investments.
Financial support for investments in logistics centers is also provided by federal states
and local governments, committing financial resources as part of various investment financing models.
In the German implementation model, similar to the Italian one, the participation of the public sector in both the planning and implementation phases of the investment is noteworthy.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2004.