This thesis focuses on the evaluation and ranking of competing gateway cargo ports in view of their development potential.  For port evaluation we have identified 27 suitable and interesting  criteria form the literature. In order to evaluate the standing of the port after future investments, one would need to estimate the potential demand that the port will serve, given these investments (Demand is one of the 27 aforementioned criteria). For this purpose, we have developed a model that estimates this future demand by optimizing logistics cost and handling/transportation time of cargo to/from the hinterland area using Goal Programming.  In order to arrive to a fair comparison between competing ports using the above criteria, we computed appropriate criteria weights,  with the use of four different weight determination methods, namely AHP, BWM, Entropy and CRITIC. For ranking the competing ports using the selected criteria and their weights, we employed four MCDM (Multi – Criteria Decision Making) methods, namely PROMETHEE II, TOPSIS, VIKOR and WASPAS.  

The method has been applied to the Port of Alexandroupolis, currently under privatization, and we considered as competing ports those of Thessaloniki, Kavala, Burgas, Varna and Constanza that may serve the same hinterland of SE Europe.  Alexandroupolis was evaluated under two states:  Current state and future state after investments. The results indicated a significant variability of the results among weight determination criteria and evaluation methods.  To address this issue we applied the most consistent methods for criteria weight determination and port evaluation.  Using this approach,  it appears that after investments, Alexandroupolis’ rank increases from 5th  to 2nd among the six competing ports. This indicates that investing in the port of Alexandroupolis will significantly enhance the port’s demand, function and reputation in Eastern Mediterranean.