Evaluating Shipping Financial Ecological Environment in Qingdao: Implications for Maritime Financial Center Policy of Busan

Given the cyclicality, seasonality, and capital-intensiveness, the development of the shipping industry has long been contingent on corporate financing activities. As such, there have been a growing number of cities in East Asia pursuing a global maritime financial center in order to support their domestic shipping industry. However, it is widely accepted that financial services relevant to shipping in East Asia are quite under-developed compared to those of other leading maritime financial centers in Europe and North America. In this regard, this paper aimed to construct an evaluation index of maritime financial centers in terms of financial ecological environment for the purpose of highlighting the current status of development and suggesting future directions. Furthermore, this paper examined the development of shipping finance in Qingdao as a numerical example using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and compared results with those of Shanghai.