Formation Conditions and Construction Strategies of Emerging Global Marine Center Cities: Experience From the Yangtze River Delta Region in China

Constructing an emerging global marine center city is an important measure for developing countries to integrate into the global economy and accelerate development. An emerging global marine center city often develops in the shadow of established ones. However, the theoretical underpinnings for how an emerging global marine center city can overcome these disadvantages—specifically the formation conditions and the construction strategies—remain poorly understood. This study aims to explore under what conditions an emerging global marine center city may prosper in the shadow of existing global marine center cities or existing cities by the market potential functions and the construction strategies of an emerging global marine center city by escaping from the shadow of existing global marine center cities or existing cities. The results indicate that the combination of the transport cost, the population size, the hub effect, and the characteristic industries are the important formation conditions of an emerging global marine center city. The construction strategies of an emerging global marine center city are mainly that the support capacity of port infrastructure, the intelligence level of ports, and the greening level of ports should be improved; the landward hinterland should be consolidated and expanded; its global link level and global influence should be improved; and the characteristic industries should be developed.