GERMANY LEADS THE WORLD in providing logis¬tics capacity to facilitate international trade, according to Connecting to Compete 2010: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy, a new report by the World Bank Group. The world's largest econ¬omy, the United States, only scored 15th out of the 155 national economies ranked by the bank's Logistics Performance Indicator (LPI) index.

World Bank Group economists surveyed about 1,000 international freight forwarders and express carriers and com¬piled their assessments to devel¬op the country rankings for the LPI index. The index summa¬rizes a country's performance in such, areas as customs clearance, infrastructure, market competi¬tion for shipments, quality of domestic logistics services, track and trace capabilities, and adherence to delivery schedules.                      

The quality of public sector institutions and effective bor¬der-clearance procedures heavily influenced each country's score.

Not surprisingly, the study found a substantial "logistics gap" between rich countries and most developing nations. Still, the report noted, some developing countries have made strides in such areas as modernization of customs, the use of information technology, and the develop¬ment of private logistics services. "If developing countries want to come out of the [current economic] crisis in a stronger and more competitive position, they need to invest in better   trade    logistics," said Otaviano Canute, World Bank vice president for poverty reduc¬tion and economic management. Among developing countries, South Africa ranked highest on the logistics index in Africa. China was the top scorer in East Asia, while India topped the list in South Asia. Poland ranked first in Central and Eastern Europe; Brazil and Lebanon scored high¬est for Latin America and the Middle East, respectively.

This was the second time the World Bank Group conducted this type of analysis. It published a similar ranking of country logistics performance in 2007.
    
THE TOP 10 COUNTRIES FOR TRADE LOGISTICS
1) Germany
2) Singapore
3) Sweden
4)  Netherlands
5) Luxembourg
6) Switzerland
7) Japan
8) United Kingdom
9) Belgium