The state-run Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC) to be launched today, with headquarters located in Greater Kaohsiung, will combine the operations of harbor bureaus in Keelung, Greater Taichung, Greater Kaohsiung and Hualien.
To oversee the operation of TIPC, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has also established the Maritime and Port Bureau, which also begins operations today.
Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) said at the inauguration ceremony for the two new organizations yesterday that he hoped TIPC could become a company like Dubai-based Dubai Ports World (DPW), which has ambitions of managing seaports around the world.
Photo: Lin Chia-chi, Taipei Times
He also mentioned the controversy sparked by DPW in 2006, when the United Arab Emirates company tried to purchase the right to manage business in six major US seaports. Faced with stiff opposition from the US Congress, the company eventually sold its US operations to the American International Group (AIG).
“The company [DPW] has grown from Dubai Ports International in 1999 to a company of nearly 30,000 employees managing more than 60 terminals on six continents,” Chen said. “TIPC only has 2,000 employees, which means we have tremendous room to grow.”
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said the ministry did not start planning for the establishment of TIPC until one-and-a-half years ago. Since then, the ministry has been able to garner the support of the Executive Yuan and the legislature to pass an amendment to the Commercial Port Law (商港法) and create the Statute for the Establishment of the State-owned Harbor Co, Ltd (國營港務股份有限公司設置條例), making it possible to establish TIPC.
“We hope the change to the nation’s seaport system — the separation of administrative and business authorities — will make Taiwan, as well as the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, our ‘economic hinterland,’” Mao said.
Based on the division of labor laid out by the ministry, the Maritime and Port Bureau will be in charge of determining maritime transportation policy and handling public affairs, whereas daily operations will be handled by TIPC.
TIPC chairman Hsiao Ding-hsun (蕭丁訓) said the new company would integrate the resources of the nation’s four international seaports and form strategic partnerships with shipping firms, cargo dealers, bonded ports and port companies around the world.
“We will not only focus on the number of containers handled by the ports,” Hsiao said. “We will focus more on transforming the seaports into value hubs, in which the goods can increase their value after being reprocessed in free trade port zones and science parks.”
Besides commercial services, Hsiao said each port could offer additional services based on its particular advantages.
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