Pakistan at 84th position

Sunday, July 06, 2008
By Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked 84th among 118 countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report 2008.

East Asian economies, Hong Kong and Singapore, occupy top two positions in the Enabling Trade Index, followed by Sweden and Norway, according to the Global Enabling Trade Report 2008 released by the World Economic Forum. Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand complete the top 10 list.

Pakistan has been ranked 84th among 118 economies, whereas its neighbours secured slightly better positions, Sri Lanka 70th and India 71st as compared to Bangladesh 110th and Nepal 116th.

The results reflect Hong Kong and Singapore’s openness to international trade and investment as part of their successful economic development strategy. Both countries have put in place customs administrations that are highly efficient in getting goods over borders.

They are also endowed with well-developed transport and telecommunications infrastructure ensuring rapid transit to final destination. These attributes are further supported by the business environment that is conducive to the logistics and transport industry.

Published for the first time and covering 118 economies worldwide, the Global Enabling Trade Report 2008 aims to present a cross-country analysis of a large number of measures facilitating trade. The Enabling Trade Index captures free flow of goods over borders and to destinations.

The index, featured in the report, measures the factors, policies and services facilitating free flow of goods over borders and to destinations. The index breaks the enablers into four areas that are market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure and business environment.

Identifying key areas where Pakistan is lagging behind and has shown weaknesses in some of the crucial areas, Competitiveness Support Fund Chief Executive Officer Arthur Bayhan said “Pakistan needs to put immediate attention to facilitating an environment conducive to trade and investment, including a transparent and efficient border administration, well-developed transport infrastructure and highly efficient services.

Bayhan added Pakistan showed its competitive advantage on indicators such as non-tariff barriers, time for import, transshipment connectivity index, which is the type of transshipment connections available to shippers from Pakistan on bilateral routes, quality of rail road infrastructure, road congestions, linear shipping connectivity and ease of hiring and firing labour.

“The index will be particularly useful for policy-makers interested in benefiting from trade. By integrating and benchmarking the full range of factors that affect trade, both at and behind the border, it provides a meaningful guidance on what their priorities should be,” said Professor Robert Z Lawrence, Albert L Williams Professor of Trade and Investment at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Professor Lawrence is also academic adviser and co-editor of the report.

“Over the past year, the World Economic Forum has engaged key industry and thought leaders to carry out an in-depth analysis and assessment of the obstacles hindering trade in economies around the world. The goal is to construct a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue in the interest of fostering international economic development,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum Executive Chairman.

The Enabling Trade Index uses a combination of data from publicly available sources, as well as the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum with its network of partner institutes (leading research institutes and business organisations) in the countries included in the report.

The CSF carried out the Executive Opinion Survey in Pakistan from January to May 2008. The survey provides unique data on many qualitative institutional and business environment issues and the perception of the private sector on various aspects of the economy.




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