PORTS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Ports in South East Asia, one of the world’s most vibrant economic regions, have grown tremendously in terms of capacity to support tremendous growth in cargo throughput emanating from the boom in regional and global trade. This paper outlines the issues and challenges faced by the region’s ports in the face of projected growth of seaborne trade between ASEAN nations and their trading partners. It argues that to capitalize on booming regional and global maritime trade, the regional ports need to expand their capacity and increase their level of competitiveness amidst intense competition to lure shipping lines and to facilitate the handling of greater volume of cargo.