Revisiting port governance and port reform: A multi-country examination

Ten years ago, a themed volume on Devolution, Port Governance and Port Performancewas published as part of the Elsevier book series/journal Research in Transportation Economics (Brooks & Cullinane, 2007a). The volumewasmotivated by a wave of port reforms that had been observed taking place around the globe in the 1990s and early 2000s. Although these port reforms were eclectic in both their objectives and the forms they took, they did share a common context in terms of a dynamic world economy characterized by a revitalized globalization of production and consumption, consequent burgeoning growth in maritime trade and, more specifically, booming demand for container transport and its supporting infrastructure provided by container ports and terminal operators. Scholars then activewithin the international Port Performance Research Network (PPRN) provided somemuch-needed precision in defining the emerging devolution of responsibilities within the port sector and its (expected) impact on governance and performance, before moving on to examine the then current state-of-the-art with respect to the port management environment. This work, together with that of Brooks and Pallis (2012), are now acknowledged as “important milestones that contributed significantly to understanding the problem of port governance, strategy and performance” (Borges Vieira, Kliemann Neto, & Amaral, 2014). The extensive analyses contained within the volume revealed the complexity and variation in port policies, governance models and resulting outcomeswhich proliferated across the international arena. By 2017, port reform has hadmore than 10 years to evolve. The port reform timeline hasmoved on, with some countries having implemented no reforms at all, others having achieved significant improvements in performance and yet others rethinking what they have done. The 10th anniversary of the publication of this earlier book provides a highly appropriate time for scholars studying port economics, management and policy to reflect and revisit port governance developments. The current volume is the outcome of this reflection. In Revisiting Port Governance and Port Reform, contributors examine 25 countries with a focus on changes in national port policies with respect to devolution, regulatory reform and newly imposed governance models that have been instigated over the past decade andwhich have exerted a significant influence on the nature of port management. The impact that these policies have had on port strategies and port performance is analysed on a country-by-country basis, with each contribution examining what has happened over the recent past within their particular geographical domain. The overwhelming conclusion of scholars studying port reforms at the turn of the century was that “while governments may have had the best of intentions in establishing a more commercialized footing