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World Bank ranks S Africa among top 20 in logistics report

28th June 2016

By: Anine Kilian

Contributing Editor Online

  

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South Africa was ranked at 20 out of 160 countries based on income grouping and trade logistics performance in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, which was a part of biannual report titled Connecting to Compete 2016: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy.

The report ranked 160 countries on their trade logistics performance and, for the third time, Germany was the top performer, while Syria ranked lowest.

The report rated countries based on a number of dimensions of supply-chain performance, including infrastructure, quality of service, shipment reliability and border clearance efficiency.

Over the past six years, the world’s top ten performers remained consistent and included dominant players in the supply chain industry.

Low-income economies with the worst performances were often small landlocked islands, or post-conflict states.

However, for the first time in the history of the report, landlocked countries were no longer automatically disadvantaged, as shown by the performances of Rwanda and Uganda, which benefited from regionally coordinated efforts to improve trade corridors.

“Logistics performance in international trade and domestic trade
is central to countries’ economic growth and competitiveness,” said World Bank Group senior director for trade and competitiveness global practice Anabel Gonzalez.

She explained that efficient logistics connected people and firms to markets and opportunities, and helped achieve higher levels of productivity and welfare.

“Unfortunately, the logistics performance gap between rich and poor countries continues and the convergence trend experienced between 2007 and 2014 has reversed for the least performing countries,” added Gonzalez.

Countries like Kenya, India and China all improved their previous performance according to the report, which was based on survey data from more than 1 200 logistics professionals.

“Logistics performance is about achieving reliability of supply chains, linking economies to markets. In the most constrained countries the needs focus on infrastructure, or critical improvements in customs and border management,” said report co-author Jean-Francois Arvis.

He added that countries that performed well logistically had to address complex sets of issues centred on the development and quality of services, noting that all top performers showed strong cooperation between the public and private sectors in developing a comprehensive approach to efficient logistics.

Among the criteria measuring countries’ logistics performance, the report showed that logistics services were improving. However, logistics professionals were the least satisfied with rail, regardless of the countries’ income levels.

On the border management side, customs agencies got better ratings than all other agencies involved in the process, with those responsible for sanitary and phytosanitary regulations lagging behind.

“Logistics policies are now not only limited to transportation or trade facilitation, they are part of a broader agenda that also includes services, the development of facilities, infrastructure and spatial planning,” said report co-author Daniel Saslavsky.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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