Private Sector Participation in Asian Ports* Summary

Asian container ports suffer from a number of problems including insufficient port and/or terminal capacity, inefficient management and bureaucratic administration. This may be due in part to the fact that the majority of the region’s ports are controlled and/or operated by public entities. To deal with these problems, port authorities of a number of countries in the region have launched programmes that aim to attract private capital into both the existing and new facilities. As a conse-quence, these schemes have kick-started a revolutionary new operating milieu where inter- and even intra-port competition is rife. In many instances, this has engendered the perception that organi sational restructuring (including privatisation) is not only desirable, but necessary. A key claim made with respect to organisational reforms is that the transformation of ownership from public to private sector will improve economic efficiency, as well as general welfare. Associated eco-nomic theories and existing empirical studies, however, fail to establish clear-cut evidence supporting this claim. Indeed, econometric analysis of the relative productive efficiency of the port sector pre- and post-privatisation seems to suggest that ownership itself does not seem to be categorically related to efficiency in port operations. It may well be the case, as proposed by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 1995a), that the apparent absence of a clear-cut theoretical and empirica