Kaohsiung’s vision of an integrated city-port is realized through reuse and diversification.
Last June Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) took a trip to southern Taiwan’s newly opened Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal (KPCT) to attend a news conference on the port city’s Asia New Bay Area (ANBA) project. Launched over a decade ago, the municipal redevelopment initiative is a hub for high-tech smart facilities and entrepreneurship with digital, cultural and creative, and tourism-related industries operating in the waterfront area of the city, home to the largest port in the country. In 2018, the area welcomed the establishment of the Cabinet-level Ocean Affairs Council as a specialized agency to oversee the policy vision of building a true ocean state.
Kaohsiung Port President Wang Chin-jung (Courtesy of Taiwan International Ports Corp.))
Kaohsiung accounts for more than 60 percent of Taiwan’s maritime import and export cargo volume, which amounts to over 10 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year. “This clearly shows the port’s importance and responsibilities,” said Wang Chin-jung (王錦榮), executive vice president of state-backed Taiwan International Ports Corp. and president of the corporation’s Kaohsiung Port. Wang added that like other major international facilities, Kaohsiung provides services to cargo vessels arriving, departing and transiting to their destinations, for example those going from Southeast Asia on the way to European countries and the U.S. “A major maritime transport trend is that larger ports continue to grow and smaller ones in the region become weaker,” he said. “Such competition has imposed considerable pressure on Kaohsiung.” The port’s ongoing Intercontinental Container Center Project (ICCP) set on a total of around 500 hectares is a response to just such competition. It aims for status as the Asia-Pacific’s main cargo transport hub while diversifying functions from smart distribution of goods to include leisure and tourism services in collaboration with Kaohsiung City Government.
Size Matters
Wang pointed out there has been huge growth in the size of container ships due to more demanding cost-efficiency ratios. “Existing docks must expand in length, augment water depth and accommodate new crane heights,” he said. Accordingly, the ICCP has constructed advanced facilities including the 18-meter-deep Seventh Container Terminal that features 2,415 meters of pier to allow four container ships, each with a capacity of 24,000 TEUs, to lie in dock at the same time. The terminal is scheduled to begin full operation under the management of Taipei City-headquartered Evergreen Marine Corp. in May 2024. With the new terminal’s throughput expected to range from 4.5 million to 6.5 million TEUs a year, Kaohsiung will be highly competitive, according to Wang. Significantly, the latest development is designed not only to strengthen the traditional sphere of loading and unloading cargo but also to advance the port’s role as a business logistics center by adopting intelligent distribution approaches, he added.
Kaohsiung is a frequent port of call for cruise ships. (Courtesy of TIPC)
The ICCP is part of the facility’s pursuit of environmentally friendly, sustainable development in line with urban planning schemes in a city that was a heavy industrial base for decades. The project includes petrochemical storage construction and an offshore tanker transport center for effective, centralized management. “Some industrial service facilities can be redeployed away from downtown areas to allow for other land use,” Wang said. The decision dovetails with the city’s moves to add a cosmopolitan feel to its commercial waterfront with ecological maintenance including artificial reefs, tree planting, brownfield rehabilitation and bird habitat conservation projects.
In 2014, Kaohsiung received an EcoPort certification from the European Sea Ports Organization. Its renewable energy initiatives earned recognition for solar array, wind and biofuel power generation as well as energy storage and smart management systems. In 2021, the port won the World Ports Sustainability Awards first prize in the resilient physical infrastructure category, beating Brisbane and San Diego. This was awarded by Tokyo-based International Association of Ports and Harbors, whose jury praised the ICCP’s second phase as a “great strategy with foresight” to “implement environmentally friendly technologies on one hand and increase the community outreach and port-city dialogue on the other.”
Refurbished buildings filled with retail experiences at Banana Pier are a major visitor draw. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
Service Industry
Kaohsiung Port started tapping the major commercial opportunity offered by bringing cruise ship tourists into the city on March 6 when it welcomed the vessels Seven Seas Explorer and MS Westerdam, which together brought over 2,500 international passengers to stroll and spend. Both ships left the Philippines the previous day and voyaged first to Keelung Port at the northernmost tip of Taiwan. Wang said Keelung developed earlier as the country’s first cruise port thanks to its proximity to the capital. Now Kaohsiung is catching up with the newly opened KPCT, which enables the world’s largest cruise ships of up to 250,000 tons to dock. In addition, the terminal has installed rapid customs clearance technology to allow entry to up to 3,500 people an hour, outperforming established facilities like Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Cruise Terminal. Wang estimates that cruise ship tourists spend US$100 per person per day onshore. “Disembarking thousands of tourists generates great benefits for the local economy,” he said. This year it is anticipated that 135 cruise ships will dock in Kaohsiung, with 250 expected next year. Wang expects that this will continue to expand and account for 20 to 30 percent of port business.
The KPCT is just one component of ANBA’s many new infrastructure construction projects. Others are the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center, Kaohsiung Music Center and Kaohsiung Public Library, all of which have been completed. In addition, the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system extends access between the city and port area via light rail lines. The ANBA includes revitalization of old structures as collaborative initiatives between the port and city administrations. This type of cooperation is vital to the city-port relationship and the overall success of a vision for integrating the commercial port and urban areas, according to Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮). “In the past, city residents were separated from the sea by a wall,” he recalled of the days when he headed the city government’s Public Works Bureau in 2005. “Thanks to the central and local governments, the wall was removed and now residents can enjoy the sea as a part of their cityscape.”
The newly opened Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal stands ready to welcome some of the world’s largest cruise ships. (Courtesy of TIPC)
The expanding public transit system has added momentum to ANBA’s development through the light rail network that will soon completely encircle Kaohsiung’s downtown area, supplementing two intersecting lines that started operating in 2008. There is also another metro route currently under construction that will connect to the light rail KPCT Station. The deputy mayor, who describes ANBA as a quasi-science park, said the maturing transport system will aid integrated regional development by shaping an intercity tech corridor from neighboring Tainan City’s Southern Taiwan Science Park, through ANBA and then south to Pingtung County. “As Kaohsiung moves toward a post-industrial commercial structure, the city-port partnership will play a pivotal role in new commerce in our ocean metropolis,” he said.
Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw