News: Pakistan ranks 84 on Global Enabling Trade Report 2008
URL of the Website:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\07\06\story_6-7-2008_pg5_9
Date of publication: Sunday, July 06 , 2008

By Sajid Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked 84 among 118 countries on ‘The Global Enabling Trade Report 2008’ released by World Economic Forum Saturday.

Published for the first time and covering 118 economies worldwide, 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.

East Asian economies, Hong Kong and Singapore occupy the top two positions in the Enabling Trade Index ranking, followed by Sweden and Norway. Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand complete the top 10 list.

Sri Lank secured 70 and India 71 as compared to Bangladesh 110 and Nepal 116, report said.

The index breaks the enablers into four overall issue areas, market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure and the business environment.

Pakistan is lagging behind and has shown weaknesses in some of the crucial areas, Arthur Bayhan, chief executive officer of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) said.

“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”.

He said 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 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 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.

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.

Pakistan’s ranking each benchmark pillar of the index as follows:

1st pillar: Tariff and non-tariff barriers: Tariff barriers 106, Non-tariff barriers 30.

2nd pillar: Proclivity to trade: Breadth of international markets 70, Extent of regional sales 89, Openness to multilateral trade rules 74, Share of duty-free imports 117. 3rd pillar: Efficiency of customs administration: Burden of customs procedures 76, Customs services index 73. 4th pillar: Efficiency of import-export procedures: Effectiveness and efficiency of clearance 64, Time for import 47, Documents for import 59, Cost to import 82. 5th pillar: Transparency of border administration: Irregular payments in exports and imports 75, Corruption Perceptions Index 99. 6th pillar: Availability and quality of transport infrastructure: Airport density 107, Transshipment connectivity index 43, Paved roads 52, Road congestion10, Quality of air transport infrastructure 71, Quality of railroad infrastructure 44, Quality of roads 57, Quality of port infrastructure 61. 7th pillar: Availability and quality of transport services: Liner Shipping Connectivity Index 37, Ease and affordability of shipment 63, Competence of the logistics industry 60, Ability and ease of tracking 72, Timeliness of shipments in reaching destination 79, Postal service efficiency 66. 8th pillar: Availability and use of ICTs: Firm-level technology absorption 65, Mobile telephone subscribers 93, Broadband Internet subscribers 94, Internet users 85, Telephone lines 97. 9th pillar: Regulatory environment: Ease of hiring foreign labor 44, Openness of bilateral Air Service Agreements 59, Prevalence of foreign ownership 58, Business impact of rules on FDI 22. 10th pillar: Physical security: Reliability of police services 85, Business costs of crime and violence 81, Business costs of terrorism 110.