Abstract
Taiwan’s prosperous developments of economy and international trade have impelled the Port of Kaohsiung, the largest commercial harbor in Taiwan, to expand its infrastructure, system and network. For instance, the Container Terminal No. 6 has been put into construction in 2008 and the Center of Asian Pacific Operation and Global Transportation Management is promoting. In order to handle a comprehensive range of logistics services and spur further development of Taiwan's logistics management capabilities, the Kaohsiung Free Trade Zone (FTZ) began operating in January 2005.However, do those expansions/enhancements certainly attract more enterprises to invest in the Port？Does Kaohsiung FTZ’s operating environment truly meet the requirements of logistics companies? To answer these questions, this study aims to build up an appraisal pattern which reveals the business concerns of logistics entrepreneurs when they decide to make investments in Kaohsiung FTZ. Following the establishment of the Kaohsiung FTZ, twenty-five enterprises have moved in. Their operational experience was requested to feed back the reviews on the above-mentioned business concerns by means of expert interviews and Delphi questionnaires in this study. The Analytic Hierarchy Process was then adopted to determine the weight of factors considered by the logistics companies in investment.
In this study, we proposed an objective appraisal pattern on investing in the Kaohsiung Free Trade Zone which is suitable for use by both regional and international logistics companies. Also, the government and the related administrative authorities may refer to the priority of criteria we suggested in the appraisal pattern on determining applicable policies or on selecting appropriate improvement strategies.
| Date of Award | 2010 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Zsu-Hsin Chuang (Supervisor) |