Malaysia jumps 15 ranks in World Bank Logistics Index

Malaysia was ranked the second best-performing ASEAN country in the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2023, behind Singapore.

According to The World Bank's website, the LPI serves as a benchmarking tool to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their performance on trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance.

The index is based on a worldwide survey of international logistics operators on the ground across 139 countries, as well as information on maritime shipping and container tracking, and postal and air freight activities collected and made available to LPI by several data partners.

In a statement, Malaysia Productivity Corp (MPC) director general Datuk Abdul Latif Haji Abu Seman noted that the country jumped 15 spots to the 26th on the index, a significant improvement from the 41st when the LPI report was last published in 2018, and the 32nd in 2016. The best showing by Malaysia in the index was the 25th in 2014.

Champion of Logistics Productivity Nexus (LPN) Datuk Seri Michael Tio added that Malaysia will be able to enter the top 10 of the LPI ranking if it continues to benchmark Singapore.

He said that the LPI measures the ease of establishing reliable and timely supply chain connections and the structural factors that make it possible, such as the quality of logistics services, trade and transport-related infrastructure, and border controls.

Tio stressed that the logistics industry has much room for improvement to be the preferred logistics destination in ASEAN.

Malaysia has comprehensive infrastructure for the logistics industry to thrive while having good connectivity via land, sea, and air, he said, adding that institutional and regulatory mismatch, bottlenecks at borders, low-value chain activities, and insufficient and unskilled manpower still need to be addressed./.

VNA