Study of competitive transport policies and ICT development strategies in the global logistics service : the case of Taiwan.

The world has seen changes in economies, trade, business and international transport in the past two decades. The forces behind the changes are the growth of the world economy, the maturation of supply chain and logistics management, deregulation of transport and rapid developing technologies. At present, more and more manufacturing firms conduct global sourcing, marketing and/or production. However, the scope of globalisation of business encompasses a great number of different and complicated processes and information. International transport is becoming increasingly complex and is imposing pressure on carriers and governments to respond with appropriate policies and strategies. The Win-Win strategy international carriers have adopted is to provide seamless global logistics services to global enterprises. Taiwan, a small island nation, is more dependent on foreign trade than most other nations. 99% of its international trade cargo is carried via sea transport in terms of cargo volume, and the rest, 1%, by air. After accomplishing the transition to an international trade oriented economy, Taiwan has been an important pivot for cross-continent international routes. The Port of Kaohsiung was one of the leading container hubs in the world and CKS airport was one of leading air cargo hubs in East Asia. However, Taiwan is losing its attractive position for foreign investors because of the high production cost in Taiwan and the huge market and low cost of labour in China. In coping with changing economic environment, Taiwan's policies and strategies reveal the intention to develop itself as an operations centre for Asia-Pacific region through a number of governmental plans, including the transformation of seaports/airports into global logistics hubs and the enhancement of ICT uses in international trade and transport. This research is based on the methodology of literature review, case study, questionnaire survey and interview to answer the research question, whether Taiwan government's transport policies incorporating ICT development strategies are suitable for international carriers to provide global logistics services. It has examined six research objectives three of them, namely, (1) four forces, market, cost, government and competition, are driving the evolution of global logistics services, (2) five factors, ICT implementation, logistics integration, investment and alliance, customer service and business re-engineering, are critical for international carriers gaining competitive advantages in providing global logistics services, and (3) seven factors, operations, facilities, service, market, cost, government and political stability, are relevant to the success of a global logistics hub. The findings of this research also show strongly support for three hypotheses: (1) international trade is influencing global logistics services, (2) ICT implementation is a key factor in providing global logistics services, and (3) suitable government transport policies can successfully establish global logistics hubs. The research also reveals that, most other countries in Asia, in the same way as Taiwan, have adopted numbers of transport polices to modernise their seaports/airports. However, two barriers, the ban on transport links between China and Taiwan and political instability, must be removed as soon as possible if Taiwan intends to transform its searjorts/airports into competitive global logistics hubs. In addition, ICT integration of and collaboration among related trade and transport information systems is key to attaining a paperless trade and transport environment and to ensuring the success of seamless global logistics services and suitable government transport policies must enhance seaports/airports with logistics functions instead of establishing them as large hubs as there is no guarantee of cargo to and from regions via these seaports/airports. Finally, this research used a structured approach to analyse government transport policies and strategies as seen in the case of Taiwan. The model used in this research could be used by others, including researchers, governments and carriers, to examine whether their transport policies incorporating ICT development strategies are suitable for international carriers to provide global logistics services