A POLICY-MAKING FRAMEWORK FOR ENHANCING THE KAOHSIUNG PORT’S ECONOMIC RESILIENCE

This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Influential indicators for measuring Kaohsiung port resilience’ presented at the International Forum on Shipping, Port, and Airports (IFSPA 2013), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 3–5 June 2013. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method commonly used in the issue of decision making was performed in this study to propose a policy-making framework for enhancing the Kaohsiung port’s economic resilience. A three-level hierarchical structure with 19 attributes is proposed and tested. Results indicate that adjusting the shipping policy is perceived as the most critical strategic dimension to enhance container port resilience. This is followed by increasing incentives, adjusting port operational strategy and exploiting market opportunities. Overall, results show that the five most important strategies for enhancing international container ports’ resilience are training of international marketing personnel, economic deregulation of shipping market across the Taiwan-Strait; subsidising the throughput of containers transhipment, subsidising coastal shipping operations and the alteration of dedicated terminals for rent. This study contributes in proposing a policy-making framework to enhance the container port’s economic resilience, and this framework could also be generalised to other ports.