Synthetic Evaluation Of China's Coastal Port Cluster

As the constant growth of China's economy and rapid development of the foreign trade, China's port industry has come into a period of rapid development too. At present, five port clusters have been emerging in China's coast including the Bohai Bay Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, the Southeast Coast, the Pearl River Delta and the Southwest Coast. However, the differences of developing level exist among five seaport clusters for the sake of historic and social reasons. Therefore, to divide the work and position properly, it is of great importance to have a systemic and synthetic evaluation of the seaport clusters.Firstly, this thesis introduce the definition and evolving and developing history of port cluster, and quantitatively analyze the different impact of competitive and cooperative strategy on the port cluster's development. Then through the comparison with overseas major port clusters, the thesis analyses the developing status of China's coastal port clusters and problems that exist. According to them above all, synthetic evaluating index system are established base on theories of port competitiveness and system science. Combining Analytical Hierarchy Process with weighted entropy to calculate combined weight, then the thesis makes a synthetic evaluation on the developing level of China's coastal port clusters using the method of weighted synthesis. Finally, using the successful developing experience of port clusters home and abroad, the thesis advances some suggestion for the development of China's coastal port clusters.