Charting a New Paradigm of Container Hub Port Development Policy: The Asian Doctrine

Abstract

This paper proposes the conceptual model of the Asian (Port) Doctrine to explain the successful development of top ranking container ports in Asia during the past four decades. This paper draws a new paradigm for the role of government as a third governance approach in addition to Anglo-Saxon and European doctrines by describing how Asian countries have developed container hub ports by investing in infrastructure as social overhead capital to support export-led growth. We survey characteristics and outcomes in major Asian container port developments and one European port in terms of a port development policy. The findings are presented in a comparative overview of government investment in functional elements of port, maritime infrastructure and landside connections to container ports. This paper confirms that the existing two doctrines—Anglo-Saxon and European doctrines—are not sufficient to explain the Asian success in major container port developments. The proposed framework contends that a newly proposed Asian Doctrine can accomplish this with the help of cross-subsidization, strategic and administered port pricing mechanism.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their critical and constructive comments. Thanks also go to Professor Young-Tae Chang of Inha University, Professor Theo Notteboom at ITTMA of University of Antwerp, and Dr Tsung-Chen Lee of National Taipei University for their helpful comments to develop the Asian Port Doctrine. Any errors are, however, ours.

Notes

The Lehman shock refers to the financial dislocation triggered by the largest bankruptcy in history to date when in September 2008 the investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.