The dynamics of port reform in Taiwan and Australia: similarities and diverging outcomes

This paper examines ongoing port reform in Taiwan and Australia - its evolution and future challenges. Reform in both countries has been consistent with paradigmatic shifts toward market orientation and within this context privatisation was considered the preferred option. In both Taiwan and Australia, however, governments, reluctant to relinquish control over their ports, opted for corporatisation models - options that would yield suboptimal results and demand ongoing reform. This paper discusses the dynamics and drivers of reform, and examines the outcome of these strategies. Both countries commenced port reform with deregulation of dock labour employment and introduced enterprise-based employment replacing the labour pool system. Privatisation of stevedoring operations was introduced at the same time in Taiwan. In the second reform phase, Taiwan amalgamated the four major commercial ports under a single state-owned port company in March 2012, with the objective of reducing inter-port competition and creating a central port planning mechanism. Australian ports have undergone restructure with the implementation of corporatisation, privatisation and commercialisation strategies since 1990s. Reform strategies in both countries display some similarities e.g. rationalisation strategies in both Taiwan and Tasmanian ports, but also some distinct dissimilarities with the increasing move to privatisation in Australia, e.g. the sale of South Australian ports and in 2010 the sale of the port of Brisbane.