A Study on Weighing the Critical Factors of Building a New Deep Seaport System

The aim of this study is to determine the critical factors and construction requirements for a new deep-water seaport system in the Lach Huyen area in northern Vietnam. In this study, the Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) method was used to evaluate the importance of the criteria and subcriteria. The results were as follows: the principal criterion “geographical location (0.151)” ranked as the most important criterion for building a new deep-water port system, which is affected by the subcriteria “direct sea route with mega-vessel” and “good liner connectivity index”. The principal criterion “port competency (0.145)” ranked second; thus, it can be concluded that good competitiveness of a port’ will provide many benefits to the port and the region. Regarding the implication, the established evaluation framework can be used for port construction to make a more reasonable judgment. In a future study, the scope of evaluation factors should be widened, involving participation of broader stakeholders, such as shipping companies, forwarders, and logistics companies.