According to the latest World Bank report, Pakistan is one of the lower-middle income countries in the list of global Logistics Performance Index (LPI) which does not spend much to improve infrastructure. The bi-annual report places Pakistan at 68 against India at 35, showing slow improvement in logistic performance. Against Pakistan’s ranking at 68 in the report ‘Connecting to Compete 2016’, Bangladesh is at 87, India at 35 and China at 27. The latest report ranks Pakistan at 68 with 2.82 score on logistics quality and competence, at 71 with 2.66 score on customs, at 66 with 2.93 score at international shipments, at 69 with 2.7 score on infrastructure, at 67 with 2.91 score on tracking and tracing and at 58 with 3.48 score on timeliness. In its report issued in 2014, the bank ranked Pakistan at 75 with 2.79 on logistics quality and competence, at 58 with 2.84 score on customs, at 69 with 2.67 score on infrastructure, at 56 with 3.08 score at international shipments, at 86 with 2.73 score on tracking and tracing and at 123 with 2.79 score on timeliness.
The report ranks 160 countries on their trade logistics performance in which Germany remained the top performer and Syria the lowest. While preparing the index, the bank takes into account a number of dimensions, covering supply chain performance, quality of service, reliability of shipment, border clearance efficiency and infrastructure. According to the report, the country has made progress in the fields of timeliness, tracking and tracing and logistics quality and competence. The progress in logistics performance is slow in the least developed economies, but improvement is seen in the emerging economies. The report says that top-10 logistics performers of the world remained dominant players in the supply chain industry during the last six years. However, the landlocked countries, small islands, or the states which suffered years of wars and conflicts have shown the worst performance. Some landlocked countries in Africa such as Ethiopia and Rwanda took benefits of the regional coordination and overcame the geographical limitations.
In Pakistan, once railway was the sole or main logistics handler, but years of negligence and corruption has brought this vital department on it knees. Some army units were also involved in the logistic handling and had shown better performance for years, but now the situation has changed. With increasing imports and exports, the country needs modern and efficient infrastructure for speedy movement of goods. The country still reels under old methods of transportation whereas many multinational companies are willing to invest in high speed transportation system. Sooner the government takes decision, the better.
