Abstract

Recent process of trade integration, the strengthening of specific regional areas, such as the EU, and the liberalization of the seaport sector positively affect the specificity and the organization of the Southern-Italian seaport system. Despite that, it is still not well organized and not completely expanded yet. A determinant is the fact that, in Italy, there is a traditional strong preference for road transportation, which creates serious problems for its negative externalities on environment and road congestion. In addition, intermodal transit is not structurally completed and government agencies are not able to provide an adequate flow of financial resources to support the optimal expansion of the Southern seaport system. Hence, institutions should be more concerned with the effective power of this system for the development process.