Ports are definitely in this engineer’s life who worked at the Port of Santos (SP) in the first years of Law 8.630, and has advised other ports in the country. He is currently head of the São Sebastião Docks Company. Frederico Bussinger, from the top of his port knowledge, answers the questions of PortFolk in the debate "Ports - Problems in Modernization".

For him, neither privatization nor full nationalization are efficient ways for the national ports. Bussinger advocates a system honored by time and the world, which is called the "landlord port", where public and private live harmoniously.

PortFolk - What is the importance of government management in the port sector?
Frederico Bussinger - Among the port management models adopted, the so-called "landlord port", designed more than seven centuries ago, is by far the most prevalent: in countries of the North and South, East and West, developed, emerging or underdeveloped, more or less democratic. Finally, it’s an established and universally disseminated model. In this model the government, exercising authority and port administration, with private operations get along; that is, for all intents and purposes, a PPP! This is the main reference of the Brazilian model established with the "Ports Law" as of 1993. It’s good to remember that Brazilian ports, before this PPP, were private monopolies (in the 19th century) and state monopolies (the "Portobrás age").

Certainly, the Law also foresees the possibility of "private use terminals" (the term "use" is not secondary!) for dedicated and isolated facilities. But for port complexes - "organized ports" in the jargon of the law (common basic infrastructure, various specialized terminals and common areas, all in the same space), I think that PPP is the most suitable model. That’s because in the performance of the authority-management functions there are public functions (e.g. regulation at the local level, something like a "1st regulatory instance”) so it’s as difficult to see how it could be exercised by the private sector, within our legal system, as it would be to discern the interests of the private sector itself exercising it.
 
PortFolk – Is the State as port business manager, responsible to rule, limit and monitor port business still the path or should the market be increasingly the governor of the game?
Frederico Bussinger - There are aspects that the market regulates. But there are regulatory dimensions more their own, or quasi-private of the public sector, in Brazil and most of the world. Especially when the market is approaching a monopoly, or even when an oligopoly. This was quite clear, proven, during the recent global financial crisis.