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Increased economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has given rise to increased demand for port development. Given the often scarce availability of national public funding, port institutional reform programmes have been implemented to pave the way for the inclusion of external port investors. Notwithstanding this fact, some sub-Saharan African Governments remain institutionally locked into the notion that state-owned enterprises remain an appropriate vehicle for port terminal operations. This, despite the fact that terminal operational concessions globally and within the continent of Africa are increasingly being managed by global terminal operators. Given this context, this study aims to evaluate different port valuation and funding strategies. Two research questions form the core of this research: what is the financial value of a concession? What is the most cost advantageous funding strategy? The methodology is applied to the development of a two-berth container terminal in SSA.

After reviewing a range of financial valuation and funding techniques, the study presents valuation and funding model applicability-fit tests. Thereafter, a suitable valuation technique is selected and applied to the case study providing a concession valuation. Different funding strategies are applied to the valuation model to determine the cost implications of each funding instrument given the local context and institutional constraints applicable to SSA. Finally, the study discusses the significance of the results to potential SSA port investors by highlighting the impact of each funding approach on key financial metrics.

The study presents a range of financial investment appraisal results for the case study concession in consideration of four specific funding strategies. The highest concession valuation could be attributed to a higher debt ratio as a principal funding strategy. In addition, this funding approach (100% debt) realised the shortest payback period and the highest internal rate of return values. The authors, however, maintain that the optimal funding strategy for a concession depends ultimately on the financial goals of the investor.

This research makes a contribution to the existing literature on port finance and development by presenting a structured approach to the evaluation of the valuation and funding techniques, which can be used in terminal development subject to the specific local context and institutional constraints (in this case applicable to SSA). The study provides practical insight into the potential cost of the considered terminal concession for private or public sector participants and a view of the most cost advantageous funding strategy available for interested investors.

Both Washington and American business are concerned about U.S. international trade performance and various export‐finance and related support undertakings. This paper examines the significant transition in the government’s export‐credit insurance program in terms of a major alteration of the relationship between the Export‐Import Bank and Foreign Credit Insurance Association. The result is a case study of how level and delivery of export‐credit support must be carefully evaluated by marketing executives operating in today’s global business environment.

Many companies would like to distribute their products to an international marketplace. Financing, however, may be a problem. Here are some ways to overcome this.

Valuable though the High St clearing banks are in providing funds for industry, there are other investment sources offering a comprehensive range of services to suit individual needs, as this report by Matthew Collins shows. But whether the quest for a loan takes place in the City or suburbia, success or failure rests not only on the merits of a case but also the way it is presented.

The relationship between banks' corporate customers and their sources of financial services is examined. From interviews with financial decision makers, in a number of British companies, the author discusses their awareness of, attitudes towards and use of financial services and the attributes considered important in the selection of a supplier of financial services.

The volumes of international containerized trade substantially increased over the past years. In the meantime, marine container terminal (MCT) operators are facing congestion issues at their terminals because of the increasing number of large-size vessels, the lack of innovative technologies and advanced handling equipment and the inability of proper scheduling of the available resources. This study aims to propose a novel memetic algorithm with a deterministic parameter control to facilitate the berth scheduling at MCTs and minimize the total vessel service cost.

A local search heuristic, which is based on the first-come-first-served policy, is applied at the chromosomes and population initialization stage within the developed memetic algorithm (MA). The deterministic parameter control strategy is implemented for a custom mutation operator, which alters the mutation rate values based on the piecewise function throughout the evolution of the algorithm. Performance of the proposed MA is compared with that of the alternative solution algorithms widely used in the berth scheduling literature, including a MA that does not apply the deterministic parameter control strategy, typical evolutionary algorithm, simulated annealing and variable neighborhood search.

Results demonstrate that the developed MA with a deterministic parameter control can obtain superior berth schedules in terms of the total vessel service cost within a reasonable computational time. Furthermore, greater cost savings are observed for the cases with high demand and low berthing capacity at the terminal. A comprehensive analysis of the convergence patterns indicates that introduction of the custom mutation operator with a deterministic control for the mutation rate value would provide more efficient exploration and exploitation of the search space.

This study does not account for uncertainty in vessel arrivals. Furthermore, potential changes in the vessel handling times owing to terminal disruptions are not captured.

The developed solution algorithm can serve as an efficient planning tool for MCT operators and assist with efficient berth scheduling for both discrete and continuous berthing layout cases.

The majority of studies on berth scheduling rely on the stochastic search algorithms without considering the specific problem properties and applying the guided search heuristics. Unlike canonical evolutionary algorithms, the developed algorithm uses a local search heuristic for the chromosomes and population initialization and adjusts the mutation rate values based on a deterministic parameter control strategy for more efficient exploration and exploitation of the search space.

In the mid‐1970s, there was an upsurge of interest in the notion of worker participation at board level. Several influences contributed to this development, including initiatives from the EEC, experience of worker directors at BSC, political commitment from the then Labour Government, culminating in the establishment of a Committee of Inquiry. It was at this time an unknown researcher with research experience of participation in joint consultative committees — amongst other things — began negotiations with the Department of Employment for monies to pursue her research interests. The outcome was the “worker director project” based at the University of Nottingham. The aim of the project was to examine the role of worker directors in private sector companies. Few companies fitting that description could be found, but of the seven which co‐operated in the research, all were different in many respects. The worker director schemes which they had fostered too were different. This monograph presents brief case descriptions of four of these firms. An attempt is made to highlight the salient features of each which were perceived to be influential in shaping the scheme. Thus various contextual factors are discussed, so too are role and role‐related issues; the extent of training and preparation of the worker director; the amount of information disclosed to and by her/him. Finally, a list of criteria are suggested as guides for assessing and evaluating such schemes, not so much by their own lights, but as a reasonably detached, independent observer.

Worldwide multimedia market: explosive growth forecast. The worldwide market for multimedia products and services will grow forty‐fold from $0.4 billion in 1989 to $16.6 billion in 1994, forecasts John Gale's Information Workstation Group.

This study aims to understand the factors and problems that relate to Indonesian port competitiveness and the problems that need to be addressed by major actors such as the government and port corporations.

It combines quantitative analysis from 59 survey respondents and qualitative analysis from focus-group discussions and in-depth interviews with port experts, financial bodies, port corporations and government officials on the condition of Indonesian port planning, development and financing.

An Indonesian port competitiveness model was developed, comprising government support, business support and operational performance. The authors found a gap between policy expectation and realization of port facilitation, caused by inefficient government bureaucracy, customs clearance and strategic decision-making. The government's consistency and commitment need work to encourage investor interest. Road connectivity, intermodal transportation, and energy infrastructure should be enhanced to increase operational performance. These problems are caused by a lack of feasibility analysis, consideration of local economic developments, and late adoption of standard technology. The maritime-sector workforce should be trained to be more professional with foreign players, more innovative and more open towards foreign assistance.

Port competitiveness includes government-related variables. The government’s initiatives are welcomed but are not enough. Adequate attention to both micro and macro port is necessary to increase port competitiveness. Future research should develop more comprehensive solutions to increase port competitiveness in Indonesia using problems and factors outlined here.

The study investigated the unique factors and problems that relate to Indonesian port competitiveness. It uses a national scope and rich expert data involved in Indonesia's port industry.

There are many different pollution reduction strategies even within different ports in the same country. Every port can learn from these environmental protection strategies. What remains universally key, though, is to select the optimum strategy to reduce pollution. This paper aims to use a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) to prioritize the relative weights of key criteria assessing the port environmental protection and select the best port in Taiwan.

Four criteria and eleven sub-criteria of the FAHP model are developed through expert interviews and relevant literature review. Three alternative ports considered are Kaohsiung, Keelung and Taichung. The expert questionnaire samples (23) include four groups: shipping operators, port operators, governmental officials and academics.

Results indicate that finance is the most important evaluation criteria, followed by port environmental policy, technology and stakeholders. Among the three ports compared, Kaohsiung Port is selected as the best port, followed by Keelung and Taichung port.

The result of this paper can help fill the gap in the existing literature regarding decision analysis techniques for port pollution regulation and expect to present a holistic picture of the important evaluation criteria related to port environmental protection as well as raise issues of public awareness concern and consequently improve green port sustainability.