Sustainability agendas are challenging port authorities around the world to find ways of operating and managing their ports efficiently and effectively in terms of economic, social, as well as environmental development. In this respect, governments in ASEAN countries have been implementing various green activities seeking to reduce the environmental impact of shipping and related activities. In this connection, most studies in the existing literature mainly focus on the environmental aspects of sustainable development and have not clearly explained what sustainable port development exactly entails. Furthermore, most of these studies emphasized on the impact of port development and overlooked what factors influence sustainable port development. To address these gaps, this research aim to explore the main factors shaping sustainable port development. This was conducted through a comprehensive review of related literature as well as confirmatory in- depth interviews with port authorities. As a result, findings from this research would help identify key elements of sustainable port development from port authorities’ perspective. The challenges, opportunities and managerial implications for Vietnamese ports are also discussed accordingly.

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1. Background

Increasing environmental awareness posits new challenges to the development of ports. In addition, climate change calls for adaptation of measures that aim at minimizing its impact such as rising sea levels and increased flooded water heights, as well as safeguarding both accessibility * This research was supported in part by the Funding Grant of Nanyang Technological University (MOE Tier 1)

of waterways and future sustainability for social and  natural environmental conditions. In an attempt to minimize the environmental impacts and pursue sustainable operations in the long run, several legislations regarding the construction and extension of ports have been timely introduced at both international and domestic levels. For example, there have been related legislations in the EU (i.e. Classification Societies

– Regulation (EC) No 391/2009, Ship-Source Pollution – Directive 2000/59/EC, Marine Equipment – Directive 96/98/EC and Directive 2014/90/EU), Australia (i.e. Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA), New Zealand (i.e. Resource Management (Marine Pollution) Regulations), USA (i.e. Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA), Singapore (i.e. Environmental Protection and Management Act (Cap.94A), etc.). These legislations are aiming at incorporating environmental issues into core strategies of port development and are based on stricter standards. Therefore, sustainability is increasingly seen as one of the key drivers in port development in the next decades.

Ports must plan and manage their operations and future expansion (growth) in a sustainable way in order to cope with the limited or decreased environmental space and intensified interactions with their hinterlands. The recognition and accommodation of port development concept in harmony with the surrounding cities clearly render green growth and important economic driver (Black 1996). In this respect, a number of studies have been conducted aiming at measuring sustainable port’s performance (Chin and Low, 2010; Tsinker, 2004; Wiegmans and Louw, 2011). Nevertheless, there has been little literature known to us which describes clearly and comprehensively what sustainable port development actually entails. Therefore, there exists the need for a step towards an integrated approach to improve the evaluation validity in terms of a variety of sustainable port’s development indicators.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Sustainable Development – Shipping

Shipping operations interact with environment in many ways, either accidently or intentionally (Talley, 2006). Such interactions are not only generating substantial damages to natural habitats, but also affecting economic activities, especially along coastlines with the concentration of maritime-related economic activities such as ports (Heaver, 2006). The environment is always vulnerable from oil and chemical spills from ships either from their operational activities or catastrophic accidents which cause health hazards (Gupta et al., 2005). As a result of rising environmental awareness in business worldwide, shipping firms are increasingly expected to embrace green practices that promise to make their system and process environmentally friendly to the international community (Yang et al., 2013). A challenge for shipping firms is how to perform shipping operations profitably while reducing their negative impacts on the environment (Cheng and Tsai, 2009). There has been a change of emphasis over time in the focus of international regulatory bodies with the current attention on environmental sustainability management. For example, MARPOL now deals with the prevention of pollution from oil chemicals and other hazardous substances, ballast water treatment, reduction in the use of harmful paints, reduction in emission from ships, and ship recycling (Heij et al., 2011).