Container ports development and regional economic growth: An empirical research on the Pearl River Delta Region of China

With the PRD (Pearl River Delta) economy emerging, the PRD container ports facilities and service-related have been largely intensified and extended since mid-1990s. Container throughputs handled by local ports have skyrocketed for the sake of massive containerized freight resulted from regional economic growth to be driven by FDIs (Foreign Direct Invest) and related inputs. By utilizing a Cobb-Douglass production function, this paper investigates the relationships between local container throughputs, FDIs and gross products value of industry. It has been found that there exists high elasticity and heavy increasing returns to scale for local container ports in terms of FDIs and gross product values of industry; the regional economic growth and FDIs have surprising depended on local container transport development. So further measures should be taken to intensify the logistics system, including upgrading port facilities, reducing the institutional transition costs and highlighting operation efficiency to leverage PRD and regional economic development.