Taiwan: Bright Future for Port of Kaohsiung

Renowned Japanese management consultant Kenichi Ohmae made the suggestion in 2009 that the development of Port of Kaohsiung should be divided into inner harbor and outer port, and the inner harbor should develop leisure tourism while the outer port should be a container port.

Citing Port of Yokohama in Japan as an example, he said separating the development planning for Kaohsiung’s inner harbor and outer port will enable Kaohsiung to have both leisure tourism and transport functions, and there were similar port development projects at Port of Yokohama in Japan, Baltimore and Long Beach in the United States, and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

So long as there are perfect traffic and transport systems, Port of Kaohsiung will attract visitors to make it a port with both tourism and transport functions, noted Ohmae.

Port of Kaohsiung once ranked third among the world’s container ports, but its current annual container handling volume stands at some 10 million TEUs. Hsieh Ming-hui, executive director of Taiwan Competitiveness Forum, estimated that as the container handling volume has increased by one million TEUs a year since cross-strait direct transport began, Port of Kaohsiung is expected to increase its container handling capacity by 3 million TEUs annually because it is making an all-out effort to accelerate the implementation of the International Container Terminal Phase One Project to strengthen Kaohsiung’s competitiveness.

Real estate businesses also have high expectations of cross-strait direct transport, especially hoping the sales of office buildings around Port of Kaohsiung will increase after several years of waiting. President Chen Wu-tsung of The Real Estate Development Association of Kaohsiung has said repeatedly that cross-strait direct transport will enable Kaohsiung to quickly become the Asia-Pacific economic operational headquarters and an R&D center, replacing Hong Kong and Singapore, and attract more talents and the exchange of techniques, funds and goods to stimulate the market.

Port of Kaohsiung signed a sisterhood agreement with the Polish Port of Gdansk to strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation and promote harbor development. The agreement was signed in Kaohsiung by Vice President and CEO Huang Kuo-ying of Port of Kaohsiung and Vice Chairman Marek Pietruszewski of Port of Gdansk.

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Press Release, May 29, 2014