In the wake of recent development in Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, the World Bank, in its latest report, disclosed that Pakistan had successfully managed to climb up the ladder in the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) to 68th position out of 160 economies for 2016, reported a national daily. Initially, Pakistan was placed at the 72nd rank in 2014.
India stood at 35th position whereas China was ranked number 27 in the LPI.Germany remained the top performer for the second consecutive time. Singapore dropped to the fifth place in 2016 after being in the top slot in the 2012 survey.
While drafting the report, the World Bank analysed key areas like transport infrastructure, logistics quality and competence, basic infrastructure, border management and clearance (customs), tracking and tracing of consignments and international shipments as per schedule.
LPI is an interactive benchmarking tool created to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their performance in trade logistics so that they can make necessary improvements.
LPI 2016 allows for comparisons across 160 countries and is based on a worldwide survey of operators on the ground (global freight forwarders and express carriers), providing feedback on logistics friendliness of the countries in which they operate and those with which they trade.
They combine in-depth knowledge of the countries in which they operate with informed qualitative assessments of other countries where they trade and experience global logistics environment.
LPI consists of both qualitative and quantitative measures and helps build profiles of logistics friendliness for these countries. It measures performance along the logistics supply chain within a country.
The first LPI ranked Pakistan at the same place. The second report launched in 2010 showed a sudden drop to 110th rank as the country was recovering from the effects of nationwide floods, which drastically impacted the the urban infrastructure.
