Giant leap by Mauritius in proving efficiency of trading goods around the world

Mauritius improved significantly by 50 positions over the last four years in proving efficiency of trading goods around the world, according to the World Bank (WB) survey.
It is ranked 82 among the 155 countries in the global Logistics Performance Indicators (LPI), included in the report ‘Connecting to Compete 2010: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy'. The counrty was at 132th position in 2007. Madagaskar and Uganda are two other countries in the region that have improved significantly. Madagasklar is ranked 88 and Uganda at 66, whereas South Africa is at the 28 position in the list.
The LPI is an ‘interactive benchmarking tool’ created to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities in their performance in trade logistics, the WB report said adding that the LPI 2010 allows for comparisons across 155 countries.
The report is based on a worldwide survey of operators on the ground (global freight forwarders and express carriers), providing feedback on the logistics 'friendliness' of the countries in which they operate and those with which they trade.
In the developing countries category per region, South Africa (28) is the top performer from Africa; China (27) from East Asia; Poland (30) from Central and Eastern Europe; Brazil (41) from Latin America; Lebanon (33) from the Middle East; and India (47) from South Asia.
Germany is the top performer among the 155 economies followed by Singapore, Sweden and the Netherlands.
According to the LPI, high income economies dominate the top logistics rankings, with most of them occupying important places in global and regional supply chains. By contrast, the ten lowest performing countries are almost all from the low and lower income groups. Nine other most significant overperformers for this year are: China (27), Democratic Republic of Congo (85) , India (47), Madagascar (88), the Philippines (44), South Africa (28), Thailand (35), Uganda (66), and Vietnam (53).
By contrast, the 10 lowest performing countries are almost all from the low and lower income groups.
Although the study shows a substantial “logistics gap” between rich countries and most developing countries, it finds positive trends in some areas essential to logistics performance and trade. Some of them include the modernisation of customs, use of information technology, and development of private logistics services.
Although the study shows a substantial ‘logistics gap’ between rich countries and most developing countries, it finds positive trends in some areas essential to logistics performance and trade. Some are the modernisation of customs, use of information technology and development of private logistics services.

What is LPI
The LPI is the weighted average of the country scores on the six key dimensions: efficiency of the clearance process by border control agencies, including customs; quality of trade and transport related infrastructure; ease of arranging competitively priced shipments; competence and quality of logistics services; ability to track and trace consignments, and timeliness of shipments in reaching destinations within the scheduled or expected delivery time.
In the LPI index 2010, Mauritius scored 2.72 where top country Germany bagged 4.11 points.
An overperformer is a country with a higher LPI score than expected -- based solely on its income level. An underperformer is a country with a lower than expected LPI scores.