COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2017
7
Transport infrastructure, logistics services, and trade go hand in hand and nations that are able
to deliver their products in the cheapest, fastest, and the most reliable way through their
efficient logistics infrastructure and services gain competitive advantage in the global trade.
That is why, as a historical fact, trade capitals of the world have been those cities and countries
with better accessibility and connectivity. The rapid growth of world trade after World War II
as a result of decreasing transportation costs (Hummels, 2007) is another implication of the
linkage between trade and logistics.
As underlined above, quality of logistics infrastructure and services is a major determinant in
terms of shares of countries in the global trade. In this section some important measures with
respect to trade and logistics will be analysed to better understand the current situation of the
OIC countries.
The most widely used measure for logistics performances of the countries is the World Bank
Logistics Performance Index (LPI). As can be seen in Table 3 showing the latest (2016) LPI
scores, the OIC countries such as UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, and Turkey come on top of the rankings;
while Tajikistan, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, and Somalia come at the bottom.