Global Enabling Trade Report 2008: Pakistan at 84 among 118 countries

ISLAMABAD - East Asian economies, Hong Kong and Singapore, occupy the top two positions in the Enabling Trade Index ranking, 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 at 84 among the 118 other economies, whereas its neighbours secured slightly better positions; Sri Lank 70 and India 71 as compared to Bangladesh 110 and Nepal 116.
The results bear witness to Hong Kong and Singapore’s openness to int'l trade and investment as part of their successful economic development strategy. Both countries have put into place customs administrations that are highly efficient in getting goods over borders. They are also endowed with well developed transport and telecommunications infrastructures ensuring rapid transit to final destination. These attributes are further supported by business environments that are 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 the large number of measures facilitating trade. The Enabling Trade Index captures the free flow of goods over borders and to destination.
The Enabling Trade Index, featured in the report, measures the factors, policies and services facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to destination. The index breaks the enablers into four overall issue areas: (1) market access, (2) border administration, (3) transport and communications infrastructure and (4) the business environment.
Identifying the key areas where Pakistan is lagging behind and has shown weaknesses in some of the crucial areas, Arthur Bayhan, CEO of the Competitiveness Support Fund, said that “Pakistan needs to put immediate attention to facilitate an environment conducive to trade and investment, including a transparent and efficient border administration, well developed transport infrastructure and highly efficient services.
Bayhan further added that Pakistan showed its competitive advantage on the indicators such as non-tariff barriers, time for import, transshipment connectivity index, which is the types of transshipment connections available to shippers from Pakistan on bilateral routes, quality of rail road infrastructure, road congestions, linear shipping connectivity index and ease of hiring and firing labor.