Taiwan’s Industrial Ports Transformation Policy — An Application of Policy Networks and Policy Change Theory
Author: Bing-Yan Lu
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
The more advanced the transportation infrastructure in a country, the more thebusiness community understands and can make effective use of ports and theirfacilities in order to maintain operating profits. If a country can go further and linkup the sites touted as Taiwan’s “industrial ports” and transform into internationalcommercial ports, then besides the expected profits there will also be much greaterconvenience and comparative advantage for the enhancement of Taiwan’s nationalcompetitiveness.The concept of policy networks is appropriate in the sense that it is not identicalto the old institutional perspective where attention focused on formal power. Policynetwork approach is a mixture of top-down and bottom-up approaches and offersanother alternate research method beyond market and hierarchy. Moreover, theprocess of policy change is an essential part of Taiwan’s industrial portstransformation policy and thus constitutes another focal point of this article. Threemain research questions are as follows.1. What are controversial viewpoints of Taiwan’s industrial ports transformationpolicy?2. How do key players, inter-agency and inter-government, influence policymakingof Taiwan’s industrial ports transformation policy during the process ofpolicy change?3. What kinds of policy networks and policy change does Taiwan’s industrial ports transformation policy belong to?