Seaports are vital for enabling efficient cross-border trade. This study examines the efficiency of the China Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries' seaports within the Belt and Road Initiative using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes and the DEA Banker-Charnes-Cooper input-oriented models. From 2001–2023, technical, pure technical, and scale efficiencies were assessed and ranked across decision-making units. MaxDEA ULTRA was used for slack analysis and benchmarking. Results show that several Chinese and GCC seaports achieved full efficiency (score = 1), with Bahrain's ports nearing optimal performance (constant return to scale = 0.96). The findings are crucial for boosting trade logistics not only in China and the GCC, but also across Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, enhancing connectivity and regional integration along Belt and Road Initiative routes.
Alshreef et al. (Tue,) studied this question.