Jose Tongzon

• B.A., M.A., PhD
• Professor at Inha University

It is well known that the international logistics and supply chains are subject to the domination of seaports and shipping lines each with increasingly significant market power. This implies that international supply chains, which typically involves sea transport as a key chain segment, could be subject to the double marginalisation problem. This m...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the economic impact of a rising US trade protectionism on the economies of China, Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN countries and draw out some policy and strategic implications for the USA and East Asia. Design/methodology/approach The authors employ a computable general equilibrium approach suppl...

This article demonstrates how interaction between ports in a network can be analysed in two stages. The first stage is the analysis of the price response functions and it examines how a port sets its prices for infrastructure services given those of its competitors. The second stage involves the identification of network relationships and analyses...

e-Transformation in container ports means port organization-wide innovative transformation encompassing internal and external value chains based on information and communication technology. There is a considerable theoretical literature on the impact of e-Transformation on business performance, but there is very little empirical study on its effect...

To establish an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Single Shipping Market (ASSM) is an important part of ASEAN governments’ overall plan to achieve an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. It is expected that a single shipping market will improve the region’s logistics performance and international competitiveness. To achieve this vision, h...

To strengthen ASEAN-Korea trade in services, both sides signed and implemented the ASEAN-Korea Trade in Services Agreement (AKTIS) Agreement in 2009. This paper aims to assess the trade implications of this Agreement for Indonesia and other ASEAN countries. This is the first time to conduct an assessment after its implementation. Despite the growin...

number of variables of a chosen sample, and it is unable to account for their random nature. Standard DEA can exhibit statistical inconsistency, biased results, and an arguable inference process. Thus, in this study, an efficiency evaluation method is used to overcome these limitations, especially since no studies of port efficiency have addressed...

Substantial research posits that institutions do matter in port development, resulting in path-dependent reform process. However, issues remain unaddressed, notably on how and why institutions matter during such process under diversified developmental phases and geographical settings. This paper investigates, based on the experience of two major po...

The economic rise of China and its implications for the rest of the world are well discussed in the literature. However, the literature on the rise of Chinese ports and how they could impact the ports in East Asia is very limited. Moreover, although there are few studies on the effect of Chinese port growth on the ports in East Asia, these are theo...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed to establish an ASEAN single-shipping market (ASSM) by 2015. This paper aims to assess the impediments in achieving this vision and how they can affect the pace of integration. These impediments include the differences in their national shipping capacity, national shipping policies and r...

The objective of this paper is to assess the challenges facing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in their effort to develop a competitive logistics industry in light of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. In particular, it tries to evaluate the extent to which the measures adopted to improve the competitiveness of their...

The current paper demonstrates how interaction between ports in a network can be analysed in two steps. The first step is econometric analysis to estimate ports’ tariff response functions and examine how ports set their tariffs given other ports’ tariff decision. The second step is graphical analysis that involves the identifying of the network rel...

In this era of globalization, adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) is one of the critical determinants of logistics companies' competitiveness and growth. This is especially so for the ASEAN countries as they pursue the vision of regional economic development and integration. Existing empirical studies on ICT adoption by logis...

Several initiatives have emerged for regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States has led the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, and ASEAN countries have recently started to promote the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. This paper estimates the net economic impact of these initiatives...

Studies on port service quality are quite limited and so far no study has yet been done to develop a measurement of port service quality by port service process component from the perspective of the shipping lines. The objective of this study is to develop a measurement of port service quality by port service process component and to evaluate the s...

Trade liberalization is increasingly accompanied by efforts to liberalize logistics services as nations have realized the importance of logistics services in achieving economic progress and integration. However, liberalization also brings with it costs and challenges. In this light, this article tries to assess the progress in implementing the libe...

In the era of globalisation, and information and communications technology (ICT), e-business can be critical to the competitiveness and growth of transport and logistics companies. This study aims to identify and evaluate the effect of various factors influential to the decision to adopt e-business among transport and logistics companies. A discret...

Port planners have to make decisions on optimal berth capacity for container port development. The main purpose of this paper is twofold. One is to review the current practices adopted by selected major ports in Asia in estimating berth and port capacities in their planning decisions. The other is to suggest a new approach to estimate the optimal c...

No in-depth region-wide analysis has yet been undertaken to assess progress made since the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to liberalise their logistics services in line with their vision to establish an ASEAN Economic Community. In this light, this paper discusses the motivation behind their decision to liber...

Two East Asian specialists review the development of dry ports in India as part of a broader national program to eliminate transportation bottlenecks, improve transport efficiency, and spur the economic development of interior regions by lowering road and rail freight tariffs, and thus decreasing the costs of imports (and making exports more compet...

Although a number of studies have already been conducted on the economic impact of the development of the transport and logistics sector and international trade, these are regarded as two separated topics, and little has been done so far to study in depth the relationship between them. This paper seeks to shed light on this issue in the context of...

Economist, Port of Melbourne Authority. I am grateful to the management of the Port of Melbourne Authority for their assistance and encouragement in writing this paper. The views expressed herein and any shortcomings, however, are my own and should not be attributed to my employer.

The current literature recognizes the relevance of supply chain orientation for ports and terminals. However, there is very little empirical study on the issue, particularly in relation to whether in fact ports are supply chain oriented. This paper contributes to the empirical literature by considering the port of Incheon as a case in point and by...

China's economic rise has had a significant impact on the global economy in terms of trade patterns and orientation. Much has been done to quantify the impact of China's economic rise on international trade, but very little has been done to assess its implications for logistics. In this paper, we examine the effects of China's continued economic ri...

In light of the growing supply chain power of 3PLs and very limited empirical studies on port choice from the freight forwarders’ perspective, this paper tries to evaluate the major factors influencing port choice from the Southeast Asian freight forwarders’ perspective, their decision-making style and port selection process and draw out some polic...

The objective is to identify the factors affecting shipping companies’ port choice based on a survey to a sample of shipping companies. Six factors were considered relatively important: local cargo volume; terminal handling charge; berth availability; port location; transshipment volume and feeder network. Exploratory factor and confirmatory factor...

The overall objective of this paper is to evaluate the performance and efficiency of ASEAN ports. Specifically, it first identifies overseas ports similar to ASEAN ports in terms of nature and roles, port management policies, and infrastructure and operations, using the statistical technique of cluster analysis. Having identified the groupings of s...

The aim of this paper is to assess the progress of Vietnam's integration with ASEAN and explain the current ambivalence in Vietnam's trade policy as it prepares itself for greater regional competition resulting from the eventual establishment of an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). It argues that this current ambivalence can largely be attributed to th...

The present era of globalization and regional competition has witnessed the increasing influence of the global operations of the shipping lines on port development and the declining monopoly of ports. This warrants the need for an identification of the port selection criteria from the perspective of the shipping lines. Hence, an attempt is made to...

Logistics is expected to grow by 3%–10% per annum promising tremendous economic opportunities for the countries in the ASEAN region. In the midst of these opportunities, several countries have undertaken concerted efforts to improve their logistics sector, upgrade their infrastructure and technology to get a bigger slice of the market...

Trends in total factor productivity growth (TFPG) are examined in the ten major sectors of Singapore. Data are drawn from the Yearbook of Statistics, Singapore, (various issues) and Economic Survey of Singapore series ranging from the year 1985 to 2000. Due to the heterogeneous characteristic of each sector and non-availability of reliable input pr...

:This paper seeks to estimate the revenue losses of CLMV countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam) due to the implementation of CEPT (Common Effective Preferential Tariff) scheme resulting from their participation in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and to suggest appropriate policies for compensating the losses. It is evident that all CL...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) (formerly GATT) was established primarily to achieve free trade across the globe based on the principle of non-discrimination and the process of multilateral trade negotiations. The fact that most countries are members of WTO reflects the worldwide belief in the benefits of a global free trade. Despite its achieve...

Few studies have investigated the quantitative relationship between port ownership structure and port efficiency with mixed results. This study applies a stochastic frontier model proposed by Battese and Coelli [Battese, G.E., Coelli, T.J., 1995. A model for technique inefficiency effects in a stochastic frontier production function for panel data....

:The Philippines has been an active supporter of the WTO and the interests of the developing countries while it is fully committed to the realization of an ASEAN economic integration. Since the mid-1980s it has undertaken major trade reforms to liberalize its trading sector and open up its economy except for sensitive areas such as agriculture and...

At the ASEAN Summit in November 2000, the leaders of ASEAN and China agreed to enhance economic cooperation and integration with the goal of establishing an ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (FTA). This decision was a natural response to a number of important global and regional developments of the past decade. Since the signing of the framework agreemen...

This paper recognizes the challenges faced by the People's Bank of China in its central banking endeavor. The fundamental problem lies with the entrenchment of party politics within the government, which compromises its operations. We conclude that it needs to make a paradigm shift from its current controlled disposition to one that calls the shots...

Jose L. Tongzon is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, National University of Singapore. 1. The average import tariff level in the United States for manufactured goods varies between 3 and 5 per cent which makes it lower than in Japan and the European Union (EU). 2. Quite recently, it has been reported that the Philippines and Thail...

This analysis of bilateral trade involves four Asia-Pacific nations (USA, Japan, Singapore and Australia) on a quarterly data set 1977 to 1994. The reduced-form model applied here derives from a structure which accommodates income, real exchange rate and real-balance effects. We find that bilateral balances between these countries are not cointegra...

This paper aims to assess the implications of the Asian economic crisis of 1997/98 and Singapore’s current initiatives to forge extra-ASEAN free trade agreements for the future of ASEAN economic integration. Have the recent crisis and the resulting economic difficulties undermined ASEAN’s resolve to deepen their level of economic integration? Would...

Available studies have not provided a satisfactory answer to the problem of making international comparisons of port efficiency. This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to provide an efficiency measurement for four Australian and twelve other international container ports. While DEA has been applied to a wide number of different situatio...

There is a general perception particularly among the developing countries of East Asia that China's WTO membership would spell bad news for their exports. The ASEAN countries in particular are quite concerned about its likely negative impact on their export and growth potentials. In this light, the main objective of this paper is to empirically ass...

Available studies have not provided a satisfactory answer to the problem of making international comparisons of port efficiency. This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to provide an efficiency ranking for five Australian and eighteen other international container ports. While DEA has been applied to a wide number of different situations...

The establishment of the WTO in 1995 moves the world economy into a new unprecedented era of comprehensive freer world trade, including agricultural trade. A host of vegetable oils are traded in the world market. These oils are highly interchangeable in many uses, as they exhibit minor differences in their physical and chemical characteristics. Mas...

This paper explores the existence and examines the characteristics, if any, of business cycles in Singapore. Specifically, the authors ask: Is there a business cycle in Singapore? Is there a Singaporean business cycle? Unlike earlier studies, this paper investigates whether or not there exists a business cycle in Singapore and employs cross-spectra...

This paper explores the nature and characteristics of business cycles for a group of five small open economies that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Business cycles are generated as transitory fluctuations around a stochastic trend. The results show that there is qualified evidence of common business cycles among the ASE...

Studies that have identified the various factors influencing a port's performance and efficiency are few. Furthermore, these studies have failed to quantify the relative contributions of these factors to overall port performance and efficiency. This article attempts to fill this gap by establishing a model of port performance and efficiency. Specif...

The subject of port efficiency is one of the important issues facing port authorities and policy makers today. A number of studies have been undertaken which compare ports in terms of their efficiency. But any port comparison can only be valid and meaningful if a port's efficiency is compared with a similar port. The principal objective of this pap...

The recent decline of the US dollar against other currencies has again raised the important issue of exchange rate changes and their impact on international competitiveness. This paper attempts to examine the link between exchange rate changes and prices of Singapore's exports in the light of Singapore's continued robust export performance despite...

The objective of this paper is investigate the extent to which the new (revised) pricing policy has improved the level of efficiency at the Port of Melbourne and to assess the contributions of the underlying factors of port efficiency. Further, it attempts to examine the distribution implications of the pricing policy between the major port users (...

This paper aims to develop an integrated model for forecasting both the number of ship visits and their characteristics in the medium and long term. Knowledge of future shipping trends for any port is no doubt important, as the future number of ship visits and their characteristics may have implications for the physical facilities of a port. In add...

This is a major part of a paper presented at the 14th Australasian Transport Research Forum 20–22 September 1989, Perth, Western Australia.

Much has been written regarding South East Asian countries as growing markets for Australian exports particularly in the past decade. But nothing so far has been done to examine whether ASEAN exports have also experienced some redirection towards the Australian market. The findings confirm our a priori expectations: no significant general reorienta...

Much has been written regarding South East Asian countries as growing markets for Australian exports particularly in the past decade. But nothing so far has been done to examine whether ASEAN exports have also experienced some redirection towards the Australian market. The findings confirm our a priori expectations: no significant general reorienta...

This study attempts to demonstrate the financial viability and economic soundness of adopting a National Support Income Scheme for Australia. The concept, designed to create an environment in which jobs are available for all, relies on three basic propositions including a reduction in wages and other incomes in exchange for receipt of the support i...