Bangladesh up 12 notches in WB logistics index

Bangladesh's ranking in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2023 has gone up by 12 places, a development that has given an indication that the country's skills in trade and business have improved.

According to the report, Bangladesh's rank in the index of 139 countries has risen to 88 from 100 in 2018.

Bangladesh managed a score of 2.6 on a 5-point scale, helping the country secure third place among five South Asian nations assessed by the World Bank.

India secured the 38th position on the index while Sri Lanka was 72nd and Bhutan 100th. Afghanistan's stood 139th, the last to come after all countries.

Singapore, Finland and Denmark secured the top three positions in the index.

The World Bank's Global Trade and Regional Integration Team in the Trade, Investment, and Competition Group prepared the report, titled "Connecting to Compete 2023: Trade Logistics in an Uncertain Global Economy".

The seventh edition of the report was released on April 21.

The report presents the latest view on trade logistics performance across 139 countries. Logistics is understood as a network of services that support the physical movement of goods, trade across borders, and commerce within borders.

It comprises transportation, warehousing, brokerage, express delivery, terminal operations, and related data and information management.

The six components of the LPI, unchanged since its launch in 2007, are assessed at the country level on a 5-point scale.

The 2023 LPI survey was conducted from September 6 to November 5 in 2022. It contains 4,090 country assessments by 652 logistics professionals in 115 countries in all World Bank regions.

The multilateral lender prepared the index considering six components. Of them, Bangladesh improved its performance in four categories -- customs, international shipment, logistics competence and quality, and timeliness.

The country climbed 20 notches to 101st in 2023 from 121st in 2018 in the customs category. This means Bangladesh has improved its efficiency in customs management and clearance of goods in ports.

Bangladesh's performance in timeliness, the component that considers a nation's capacity to send goods to consignees on time, has upgraded to 87th from 107th.

The country's index in logistics competence and quality has increased to 81st from 102nd while the category of international shipment improved to 91st from 104th.

The nation's business capacity, however, has deteriorated in the two other components – infrastructure, and tracking and tracing.

Bangladesh deteriorated eight notches in infrastructure, which assesses the quality of trade and transport infrastructure, to 108th from 100th.

In the category of tracking and tracing, it lost 26 notches to stand at 105th.