The interaction between the port and Kaohsiung city: Economy, institution and power

Abstract

Kaohsiung city is known as the economy development core due to its contribution in the livelihood industry, energy supply, trade and transport. However, the globalized container trend and cargo volume shared by the second port have made the old Kaohsiung port idling. Moreover, it has increased the old issue regarding the jurisdiction of Kaohsiung port which had an outstanding economic growth conflicting with the development cognition. Therefore, the political party worked with central and local organization, and through establishing administrative contracts, to transform and regenerate the deconstructed old Kaohsiung port by breaking through the limits of the Commercial Port Act and ultimately becoming a port-city collaboration development model worthy of studying.The first section of this paper provides an overview of the economic development trajectories of the Kaohsiung port city and explains the important role of Kaohsiung port with Relative Concentration Index (RCI). The second section briefly discusses some management institutions related to the Kaohsiung port, and through the power transfer of two Taiwan’s main political parties it explains how administrative contract was signed to minimize organization members’ resistance during the transformation. The fourth cross-domain coordination model driven by political parties which facilitated the transformation of the Kaohsiung port and the city industry by establishing a new system was also mentioned. The final section, based on the notion of power sharing in Taiwan’s democratic system and promotion of diversified cores and modes of cross-field coordination, explains the importance of institutional transformation and provides reference strategies to improve the inter-party and cross-strait relation accordingly.