SINGAPORE tops latest edition of the World Bank's Logistic Performance Index (LPI) from 155 countries, followed by Hong Kong, Finland, Germany dropping from top spot, the Netherlands with the US making the biggest leap from ninth rank from 15th two years ago, and UK slipping to tenth.
    The logistics gap is widening between those in the bottom 10, all low-income countries with eight in Africa, and the top 10 high-income countries since 2010 following three years of improvement by lower performing countries to improve LP scores. This trend was attributed to logistics reform being assigned less importance in favour of global events like the recession, and the European debt crisis.
    For these bottom 10 ranked African countries, all are hindered by conflict and natural disasters affecting access to markets outside of those of independent republic Djibouti and Burundi in central Africa, said the World Bank report.
    The impact of this on developing countries, and particularly those that are land-locked and poor, means that the cost of transport and logistics bumps up food prices between 20 and 60 per cent. US imported corn to Nicaragua is marked up by as much as 48 per cent, said the World Bank's logistics survey 'Connecting to Compete 2012'.
    "Transport and logistics directly affect the price and local availability of food through the performance and resilience of food chains, especially in African and Middle Eastern countries that depend heavily on food imports," the bank said, cited American Shipper.
    But Morocco, which was able to implement a comprehensive strategy to its logistics and connectivity to nearby Europe, has since jumped from 113 in 2007 to 50 in 2012. Other countries improving performance included BRIC nations of China and India with Chile, South Africa, Turkey and the US succeeding ahead of others. 
    Infrastructure is key to progress for those top performers with logistics services, and customs and border management coming close second and third, said World Bank's International Trade manager Mona Haddad: "All top performers show strong cooperation between the public and private sectors, and a comprehensive approach in the development of services, infrastructure and efficient logistics."

(source:shipping online)