Multiple criteria decision making for maritime investment policy in the developing countries

This model for multiple criteria decision making enables one to select an optimal investment policy for developing the marine industry in developing countries. The model is composed of: the mathematical model of national economy (LP model) for optimizing an investment scheme under economic and technological constraints; the model of I-O analysis for estimating the change of industrial structures induced by the investment; and the decision making model to which the results of the preceding models are fed back so as to enable the policy planner to select a feasible policy based on his own multiple criteria such as the value of GDP growth rate, international payments, unemployment rate, etc. Due consideration is paid in this study to the role of the marine industries, e.g. shipping and ports, which can be said to be the pivot of economic development in a developing country in connection with its foreign trade policy. A case study is carried out to verify this hypothesis.