Taiwan ranks No. 19 in World Bank logistics report

•Publication Date：05/25/2012
•Source： Taiwan Today
•By Aaron Hsu

Taiwan ranked No. 19 out of the 155 nations and territories surveyed in the latest international report on trade logistics, according to the ROC Council for Economic Planning and Development May 24.

The CEPD cited figures from the World Bank’s biennial Logistics Performance Index, which said that Taiwan scored 3.71 points on a 1 to 5 scale this year to put it one spot ahead of the No. 20 ranking it received in 2010.

Of the six components making up the index, Taiwan improved 16 positions in the Timeliness category—meaning that the country did much better in the frequency with which shipments reach the consignee within the scheduled time, according to the LPI.

Taiwan also advanced three seats in Customs, which gauges the efficiency of customs clearance processes. It moved up two spots in Logistics Competency, which measures the quality of logistics services; and one spot in Infrastructure, which assesses trade and transport hardware.

But the island fell by six spots in International Shipments, the category that gauges ease of arranging competitively priced shipments. It also fell by nine spots in Tracking and Tracing, which measures the ability of a nation’s trade industry to track and trace consignments.

The CEPD said the improved ranking Taiwan received is a credit to the government’s efforts in recent years to transform Taiwan into the business hub of East Asia.

At the same time, the council acknowledged that there is still room for improvement and said it would coordinate with other ministries and agencies to rectify the problems identified in the index.

Taiwan is actively participating in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum’s Supply-Chain Connectivity Framework Plan, which will make the nation better able to handle the international flow of goods, services and passengers, the CEPD said.

Singapore came in at No. 1 in the report, and was followed by Hong Kong, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Japan, the U.S. and U.K., in that order. (HZW)

Write to Aaron Hsu at pj1210meister@mail.gio.gov.tw