• Title/Summary/Keyword: Middle East Market

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Feminizing of Real Estate Speculation -A Study on the Bokbuin in the Korean Narratives in 1970s~1980s (주거의 투기화, 투기의 여성화 -1970~1980년대 한국 서사에 나타난 복부인의 형상화 양상 연구)

  • Jun, Bong-Gwan
    • Journal of Popular Narrative
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.321-359
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    • 2019
  • In the 1970s, the full-scale development of the area now known as Gangnam began, ushering in the era of real estate investment on apartments which transformed housing styles in Korea. Apartments were pitched as the most ideal type of housing, creating a competitive market of high demand and skyrocketing prices. The apartments were also viewed as a means of quick asset investment among middle-class Koreans. Within this apartment frenzy stood the female real estate speculator, the bokbuin. This study seeks to locate the bokbuin in the real estate development market after the late 1970s. The apartment speculation boom cannot be attributed to the bokbuin alone, yet she became the target of public anger and criticism, singled-out as being responsible for fueling illegal and unethical investments. The apartment boom of the 1970s was in fact generated in large part by the government, developers, construction companies and realtors. While their pursuit of profit was deemed as legitimate, the bokbuin's conduct was mostly tainted by presumed illegitimate and greedy motivations. This study problematizes this gendering of real estate investment and treat the bokbuin as a byproduct of the family-centered culture in East Asia. Analyzing Im Kwon Taek's film "Mrs. Speculator", Park Ki Won's conte, "Bokbuin", Park Wan Seo's short story, "Children of Paradise", "The People of Seoul", this study shows that bokbuin's pursuit was not hers alone; it was the collective pursuit with her husband for the enhancement of family finances. This stud y argue that the bokbuin embodied the thickly misogynistic climate of the 1970s that projected the chaotic rise of greed onto the woman.

Global Rice Production, Consumption and Trade: Trends and Future Directions

  • Bhandari, Humnath
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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    • 2019.09a
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    • pp.5-5
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    • 2019
  • The objectives of this paper are (i) to analyze past trends and future directions of rice production, consumption and trade across the world and (ii) to discuss emerging challenges and future directions in the global rice industry. Rice is a staple food of over half of the world's 7.7 billion people. It is an important economic, social, political, and cultural commodity in most Asian countries. Rice is the $1^{st}$ most widely consumed, $2^{nd}$ largely produced, and $3^{rd}$ most widely grown food crop in the world. It was cultivated by 144 million farms in over 100 countries with harvested area of over 163 million ha producing about 745 million tons paddy in 2018. About 90% of the total rice is produced in Asia. China and India, the biggest rice producers, account for over half of the world's rice production. Between 1960 and 2018, world rice production increased over threefold from 221 to 745 million tons (2.1% per year) due to area expansion from 120 to 163 million ha (0.5% per year) and paddy yield increase from 1.8 to 4.6 t/ha (1.6% per year). The Green Revolution led massive increase in rice production prevented famines, provided food for millions of people, reduced poverty and hunger, and improved livelihoods of millions of Asians. The future increase in rice production must come from yield increase as the scope for area expansion is limited. Rice is the most widely consumed food crop. The world's average per capita milled rice consumption is 64 kilograms providing 19% of daily calories. Asia accounted for 84% of global consumption followed by Africa (7%), South America (3%), and the Middle East (2%). Asia's per capita rice consumption is 100 kilograms per year providing 28% of daily calories. The global and Asian per capita consumption increased from the 1960s to the 1990s but stable afterward. The per capita rice consumption is expected to decline in Asia but increase outside Asia especially in Africa in the future. The total milled rice consumption was about 490 million tons in 2018 and projected to reach 550 million tons by 2030 and 590 million tons by 2040. Rice is thinly traded in international market because it is a highly protected commodity. Only about 9% of the total production is traded in global rice market. However, the volume of global rice trade has increased over six-fold from 7.5 to 46.5 million tons between the 1960s and 2018. A relatively small number of exporting countries interact with a large number of importing countries. The top five rice exporting countries are India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, and China accounting for 74% of the global rice export. The top five rice importing countries are China, Philippines, Nigeria, European Union and Saudi Arabia accounting for 26% of the global rice import. Within rice varieties, Japonica rice accounts for the highest share of the global rice trade (about 12%) followed by Basmati rice (about 10%). The high concentration of exports to a few countries makes international rice market vulnerable to supply disruptions in exporting countries, leading to higher world prices of rice. The export price of Thai 5% broken rice increased from 198 US$/ton in 2000 to 421 US$/ton in 2018. The volumes of trade and rice prices in the global market are expected to increase in the future. The major future challenges of the rice industry are increasing demand due to population growth, rising demand in Africa, economic growth and diet diversification, competition for natural resources (land and water), labor scarcity, climate change and natural hazards, poverty and inequality, hunger and malnutrition, urbanization, low income in rice farming, yield saturation, aging of farmers, feminization of agriculture, health and environmental concerns, improving value chains, and shifting donor priorities away from agriculture. At the same time, new opportunities are available due to access to new technologies, increased investment by the private sector, and increased global partnership. More investment in rice research and development is needed to develop and disseminate innovative technologies and practices to overcome problems and ensure food and nutrition security of the future population.

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The current state and prospects of travel business development under the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Tkachenko, Tetiana;Pryhara, Olha;Zatsepina, Nataly;Bryk, Stepan;Holubets, Iryna;Havryliuk, Alla
    • International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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    • v.21 no.12spc
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    • pp.664-674
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    • 2021
  • The relevance of this scientific research is determined by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the current trends and dynamics of world tourism development. This article aims to identify patterns of development of the modern tourist market, analysis of problems and prospects of development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods. General scientific methods and methods of research are used in the work: analysis, synthesis, comparison, analysis of statistical data. The analysis of the viewpoints of foreign and domestic authors on the research of the international tourist market allowed us to substantiate the actual directions of tourism development due to the influence of negative factors connected with the spread of a new coronavirus infection COVID-19. Economic-statistical, abstract-logical, and economic-mathematical methods of research were used during the process of study and data processing. Results. The analysis of the current state of the tourist market by world regions was carried out. It was found that tourism is one of the most affected sectors from COVID-19, as, by the end of 2020, the total number of tourist arrivals in the world decreased by 74% compared to the same period in 2019. The consequence of this decline was a loss of total global tourism revenues by the end of 2020, which equaled $1.3 trillion. 27% of all destinations are completely closed to international tourism. At the end of 2020, the economy of international tourism has shrunk by about 80%. In 2020 the world traveled 98 million fewer people (-83%) relative to the same period last year. Tourism was hit hardest by the pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region, where travel restrictions are as strict as possible. International arrivals in this region fell by 84% (300 million). The Middle East and Africa recorded declines of 75 and 70 percent. Despite a small and short-lived recovery in the summer of 2020, Europe lost 71% of the tourist flow, with the European continent recording the largest drop in absolute terms compared with 2019, 500 million. In North and South America, foreign arrivals declined. It is revealed that a significant decrease in tourist flows leads to a massive loss of jobs, a sharp decline in foreign exchange earnings and taxes, which limits the ability of states to support the tourism industry. Three possible scenarios of exit of the tourist industry from the crisis, reflecting the most probable changes of monthly tourist flows, are considered. The characteristics of respondents from Ukraine, Germany, and the USA and their attitude to travel depending on gender, age, education level, professional status, and monthly income are presented. About 57% of respondents from Ukraine, Poland, and the United States were planning a tourist trip in 2021. Note that people with higher or secondary education were more willing to plan such a trip. The results of the empirical study confirm that interest in domestic tourism has increased significantly in 2021. The regression model of dependence of the number of domestic tourist trips on the example of Ukraine with time tendency (t) and seasonal variations (Turˆt = 7288,498 - 20,58t - 410,88∑5) it forecast for 2020, which allows stabilizing the process of tourist trips after the pandemic to use this model to forecast for any country. Discussion. We should emphasize the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that many experts and scientists believe in the long-term recovery of the tourism industry. In our opinion, the governments of the countries need to refocus on domestic tourism and deal with infrastructure development, search for new niches, formats, formation of new package deals in new - domestic - segment (new products' development (tourist routes, exhibitions, sightseeing programs, special rehabilitation programs after COVID) -19 in sanatoriums, etc.); creation of individual offers for different target audiences). Conclusions. Thus, the identified trends are associated with a decrease in the number of tourist flows, the negative impact of the pandemic on employment and income from tourism activities. International tourism needs two to four years before it returns to the level of 2019.

A Correlation Analysis between International Oil Price Fluctuations and Overseas Construction Order Volumes using Statistical Data (통계 데이터를 활용한 국제 유가와 해외건설 수주액의 상관성 분석)

  • Park, Hwan-Pyo
    • Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.273-284
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    • 2024
  • This study investigates the impact of international oil price fluctuations on overseas construction orders secured by domestic and foreign companies. The analysis employs statistical data spanning the past 20 years, encompassing international oil prices, overseas construction orders from domestic firms, and new overseas construction orders from the top 250 global construction companies. The correlation between these variables is assessed using correlation coefficients(R), determination coefficients(R2), and p-values. The results indicate a strong positive correlation between international oil prices and overseas construction orders. The correlation coefficient between domestic overseas construction orders and oil prices is found to be 0.8 or higher, signifying a significant influence. Similarly, a high correlation coefficient of 0.76 is observed between oil prices and new orders from leading global construction companies. Further analysis reveals a particularly strong correlation between oil prices and overseas construction orders in Asia and the Middle East, potentially due to the prevalence of oil-related projects in these regions. Additionally, a high correlation is observed between oil prices and orders for industrial facilities compared to architectural projects. This suggests an increase in plant construction volumes driven by fluctuations in oil prices. Based on these findings, the study proposes an entry strategy for navigating oil price volatility and maintaining competitiveness in the overseas construction market. Key recommendations include diversifying project locations and supplier bases; utilizing hedging techniques for exchange rate risk management, adapting to local infrastructure and market conditions, establishing local partnerships and securing skilled local labor, implementing technological innovations and digitization at construction sites to enhance productivity and cost reduction The insights gained from this study, coupled with the proposed overseas expansion strategies, offer valuable guidance for mitigating risks in the global construction market and fostering resilience in response to international oil price fluctuations. This approach is expected to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic and foreign construction firms seeking success in the international arena.

Internal and External Assessment of Contract Management Competences in the Overseas Construction Projects (해외 건설프로젝트 계약관리 역량의 대내적·대외적 평가)

  • Park, Seunghoon;Kim, Yea Sang
    • Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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    • v.18 no.6
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    • pp.109-120
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    • 2017
  • Even though domestic construction companies are expanding into overseas construction markets, the profitability of overseas project are decreasing and finally some biggest domestic construction companies recorded heavy deficit one after another in 2013. Contract management, which is very deeply related to profitability, is the most difficult area to domestic construction companies, especially in Middle East and Asia where they have the highest market share and a high level of contract management is required. The purpose of this study is to assess their contract management competences to help them improve contract management skills and strategies. First, we defined the overseas project contract management process and selected competences from the each process stage. Then, we conducted a survey with overseas project experts. For considering their competences from various angles, we divided survey groups into domestic construction groups and other groups (Contract consultancy agencies and Construction research institutes) to understand the internal and external perspective of the domestic construction companies' contract management competences. The results of survey was analyzed by using paired samples t-test, Borich Needs Assessment Model and Independent t-test. We expected that the results of this study could contributes to establish strategies for enhancing the domestic construction companies' contract management competencies.

A Research on Development Measures of Information Services for Construction Technology (건설기술 정보서비스 구축 방안에 관한 연구)

  • Ok, Hyun;Kim, Jin-Uk
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.16 no.8
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    • pp.5707-5715
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    • 2015
  • Recently, construction industry has won an increasing number of orders for overseas construction projects, thereby achieving an external growth, but its competiveness is concentrated on the construction execution field. In particular, the plant field occupies most of the entire orders, which are concentrated regionally in the Middle East and Asia. In addition, low-cost orders are frequently caused by excessive competition. But its high value-added construction engineering(Below, CE) field's overseas market share and technological capacity are very low. Also, technological competiveness, in terms of order amount and other factors, is deepening in polarization between large CE companies and small and medium-sized CE firms. It is noted that the existing CE information systems mostly simply accumulate data such as design and specification standards and provide the information thereon to users, and thus have yet to provide the information essential for the CE and support such efforts. This study sought to prepare a system designed for sharing outstanding design documents information necessary for the CE industry, by category of construction so as to support the technological enhancement of the CE field. Toward that end, this study presented measures for constructing the system and services designed to exchange and share the outstanding design documents information and know-how by construction category necessary between ordering agencies and CE companies.

Development of Overseas Construction Big Issues based on Analysis of Big Data (빅 데이터 분석을 통한 해외건설 빅 이슈 개발)

  • Park, Hwanpyo;Han, Jaegoo
    • Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.89-96
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    • 2018
  • This study derived big issues in overseas construction through big data analysis. To derive big issues in overseas construction, candidate groups of big issues were identified through big data analysis targeting 53,759 issues including 39,436 issues from major portal sites, 10,387 issues from daily newspapers, and 336 issues in construction magazines from Oct. 1, 2016 to Sep. 30, 2017. The main results are as follows: First, the main issues of overseas construction for the past one year showed that markets were concentrated in Middle East Asia and most of them were low-price order plant projects, which revealed the limitations. Although orders of overseas construction were slightly upward in the first half of 2017 compared to previous year, overseas construction orders are still unstable due to uncertainties in the international affairs and drops in oil prices. Second, the interest topics based on the 8th core keywords of overseas construction among the overseas construction issues for the past one year showed that region (29.9%), corporation environment (22.0%), profitability (17.0%), organizations (15.1%), projects (5.2%), market environment (3.6%), policy and system (3.6%), and education (3.5%) in the order of interest. Third, 10 core issues that have expandability and persistence of discourse were extracted out of 30 issue candidates with regard to eight keywords. Based on the extracted issues, detailed analysis on each of the core issues in overseas construction and correlation analysis between 10 core issues were conducted.

Study on Frailty Profiles and Associated Factors in Later Adulthood (노년기 허약 유형과 영향요인에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Young-Sun;Kang, Eunna
    • 한국노년학
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    • v.38 no.4
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    • pp.963-979
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study was to identify frailty profiles based on physical, psychological, and social domains of functioning and to examine the associated factors showing the differences among frailty profiles. Respondents were 70 years and older(n=403) and latent class analysis was applied to determine the optimal subgroups based on Tilberg Frailty Indicators which comprised of three domains(the physical, psychological, and social domain). Also, we performed multinominal logistic regression analysis to find out factors making differences among frailty profiles. Latent class analysis(LCA) identified three distinct types: multi-frail type(27.0%), psychologically frail type(26.8%), inadequate support type(46.2%). All three types had common difficulties in dealing with daily life problems and did not receive enough help with theses difficulties. Based on the results of the LCA three-class models, people in multi-frail type accumulated problems in physical and psychological domains and had partially social domain. On the other hands, psychologically frail type showed a relatively high anxiety disorder and depression. Lastly, people in inadequate support type reported the lack of helps, but they were relatively healthy. Comparing these groups with inadequate support type, people with multi-frail had lower educational level, poor nutritional management status and were less likely to participate in labor market. People in psychologically frail type were more likely to be male, to live in big cities rather than middle and small cities, and less likely to smoke. Based on these results, our results showed the multifaceted concept of frailty among Korean elderly people and we suggested several implications for preventing frail process.

A Study on Medium-Sized Enterprises of Japan (일본의 중견기업에 관한 연구 : 현황과 특징, 정책을 중심으로)

  • Kang, Cheol Gu;Kim, Hyun Sung;Kim, Hyun Chul
    • Korean small business review
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.209-223
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    • 2010
  • Korea's business is composed of a few large-sized enterprises (which can be abbreviated as LSE) and a majority of small-sized enterprises (SSE). Although there has been a growing recognition of the need for the development of medium-sized enterprises (MSE) which can serve as a link between SSE and LSE, as yet there has not yet been a consensus on the definition, characteristics and the function of the MSE in Korea. Nowadays, the world is being globalized, and Japan and China are in competition to ne a great economic power. While East Asia is experiencing rapid changes, promoting MSE which can secure flexibility and efficiency through covering up the limitation of LSE and SSE is needed in order to respond the global market which is being specialized. The features of MSE in Japan can be listed as follows. First, the MSE in Japan is developing the company through getting into niche markets which are hard for major companies to enter rather than developing markets in order to compete against major companies directly. While MSEs are endeavoring to build the business firmly in the domestic market, they can possess special and competitive technical skills through trials and errors; so that they can get a chance develop their business through independent business system rather than putting their effort to compete against major companies. Second, from the MSEs with competitive edge in the market, there are many contributions to the national exportation. Those MSEs produce in domestic and maintain the quality of high price products which need cutting-edge technology, while they relocate the low and middle priced goods to the country where manufacturing costs are low, so that they can maintain the price competitiveness. Third, the industrial structure in Japan is formed from dual structure between major companies and small sized companies. In other words, in Japan's industrial structure which are composed of subcontract structure, this dual structure has taken a major role of small sized companies' growth and manufacturing businesses' international competitive power. Forth, MSE in Japan adopt a strategy of putting their value on qualitative scale growth rather than quantitative scale growth. In this paper, the case of Japanese MSE is analyzed. Along with its long history of Industrialization, Japan has a corporate environment where the SSEs can develop as a MSE and later a LSE through a full-support system. Among its SSEs, there are a number of world class corporations equipped with a large domestic market, win-win cooperation with the LSEs and an independent technology development. It can also be observed that these SSEs develop into MSEs with sustainable growth potentials. This study will focus on the condition under which the MSEs of Japan have been developed, and how they have survived the competition between SSEs and LSEs. Through this study, this paper attempts to offer solutions to Korea's polarization between the SSE and LSE, while providing the basis for SSEs revitalization. In general, if both extremities phenomenon deepen between LSE and SSE, there are possible fears of occurring disutility in national economy by the monopolization of LSE. For that reason, enterprise group, which can make SSE or MSE compete LSE in some area and ease the monopoly and oligopoly problem, is needed. This awareness has been shared for ages long. Nevertheless, there is no legal definition for MSE in Japan, and there is no definition about the enterprise size or unified view of MSE between scholars, but it is defined differently by each of academical person or research institution and study meeting. For that reason, this paper will organize the definition of MSE in Japan, and then will propose the characteristics of the background which has made MSE secure competitiveness and sustainable growth in global market. This study focus on that because through this process, the positive change to the awareness of MSE can be proposed in Korea and to seek the policy direction for building institutional framework which can make SSE become MES. Through this way, the fundamentals for SSE to become MSE can be managed and some appropriate suggestions which will be able to make MSE enter the global market in the future can also be proposed. Due to these facts, this study is very important and well timed task. In a sense of this way, this study will examine the definition and role of MSE in Japan. after this examination, this study will deal with the status, special feature, and promotion policy for MSE. Through this analysis of MSE in Japan, the foundation which be able to set the desirable role model for MSE in Korea can be proposed. Also, the political implication which is needed to push ahead to contribute to creating employment and economic growth through sustainable growth of MSEs in economic system of Korea can be offered through this study. It has been found that Japan's MSE functions as an indispensable link among various industrial structures by holding a significant position in employment rate, production and value added. Although the MSEs took up less than 1% of the entire number of businesses with 2700 manufacturing firms and 7000 non-manufacturing firms, its employment ratios are about 15%, while taking about 25% of the manufacturing industry's exports. In industries such as machinery and electronics which is considered Japan's major industry, the MSEs showed a higher than average ratio of manufacturing exports and employment rate. It can be analyzed that behind Japan's advantageous industries, close and deeply knit MSEs exist. Although there are no clearly stated policies geared towards the MSEs by the Japanese government, various political measures exist such as the R&D Project and the inducement of cooperation between enterprises which gives room for MSEs to participate in the SSE policies. In relation to these findings, the following practical measures can be considered in order to revitalize Korea's MSEs: First, there is a need for a legal definition of MSE and the incentives to provide legal support for its growth. Second, if a law to support the MSEs is established, it could provide a powerful inducement for the SSE to grow as a MSE, rather than stay as a SSE. Third, there is a need for a strategy of MSEs to establish a stable base in the domestic market and then advance to the global market with the accumulated trial and error and competitiveness. Fourth, the SSE themselves need the spirit of entrepreneurship in order to make the leap to a MSE. Because if nothing is to be changed about the system on the firms that grew, and the parts of the past custom was left to be managed alone, confusion and absence of management can take place. No matter how much tax favors the government will give and no matter how much incentive there could be through the policies, there are limits for industries to higher the ability to propagate. And because of that it is a period where industries need their own innovative skills to reform their firms.

World Logistics Evolution & Marketing Strategy for Korea's Enhanced Port Competition (세계물류발전과 한국의 항만경쟁력 강화를 위한 마케팅 전략)

  • Gim, Jin-Goo
    • Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.363-384
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    • 2008
  • This study aims at improving Korea's competitiveness in port logistics through marketing strategy with integrating the conceptual approach into the empirical one and combining both the oldest military treatise and the newest evaluating model in social science that was applied by the HFP(hierarchical fuzzy process) model enhanced by the KJ method. The empirical results of this study show Busan in the middle among subject ports. At present, Korea plays a reciprocal role in the port market in East Asia, but in the medium- and long-term, Korea's ports will vie together with most major ports in the East Asian region. A descriptive investigation shows that Korea's developing tasks in port logistics must be considered in the context of the direction for developing port policies, the necessity of expanding port facilities in the capital region, securing the sufficient traffic volume through the establishment of the hinterland linking system and its positive utilization, and reforming the direction for developing the global logistics through increased port competitiveness. In the short- and medium-term, Korea must use the opportunity factor of 'Growth and open door policy of China' as a geoeconomic advantage and to utilize Korea's ports as a gate to Chinese foreign trade. With the rise of China's economy, China also plays a significant role in both port and airport markets. Hence, the linking system between the two must be established to meet the expanding traffic volume, especially in the capital area. Moreover, it is necessary for Korea to secure port logistics through the establishment of the hinterland linking system and its positive utilization. The great accomplishment of this paper is to present strategies to increase Korea's port competitiveness in the rapidly changing environments of world logistics with the focus on both the oldest military strategic treatise and the newest empirical method in social science. In order to reinforce this study, it needs further compensative research because the evaluation structure could be subdivided with more extensive and precise criteria.

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