Connecting to Compete 2014 - Trade Logistics in the Global Economy

This is the fourth edition of Connecting to Compete: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy.

It features the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which the World Bank has produced every two years since 2007.

The LPI measures the on-theground efficiency of trade supply chains, or logistics performance. This year’s edition covers 160 countries.

Supply chains are the backbone of international trade and commerce. Their logistics encompasses freight transportation, warehousing, border clearance, payment systems, and increasingly many other functions outsourced by producers and merchants to dedicated service
providers.

The importance of good logistics performance for economic growth, diversification, and poverty reduction is now firmly established.

Although logistics is performed mainly by private operators, it has become a public policy concern of national governments and regional and international organizations. Supply chains are a complex sequence of coordinated activities.

The performance of the whole depends on such government interventions as infrastructure, logistics services provision, and cross-border trade facilitation.