INGENIEUR
more effective strategies needed to harness the sector ’ s contribution to eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity .
IBRD lending in the transport sector focuses on facilitating economic growth and regional integration through national and international trade . High transport costs magnify the impact of distance and reduce trading opportunities , while good freight services can make traded goods more affordable and help developing countries build more complex supply chains that facilitate trade . The IBRD ’ s focus on the reduction of transport costs for traded goods allows producers to increase their disposable income .
The multi-disciplinary capabilities of IDA allow for comprehensive initiatives that cut across economic sectors . For instance , IDA commitments help Governments formulate national and rural transport policies , strategies and programmes , and develop sector-wide approaches and multi-donor co-operation for rural transport investment . Also , due to its work on multiple road programmes , IDA has developed a strong capacity for diagnosing bottlenecks and can recommend solutions to encourage institutional innovation , such as second-generation road funds , for more successful implementation of new projects and programmes .
The portfolios of IBRD and IDA together are now more diversified in urban , rail , maritime and air transport , and contain projects that aim to improve trade competitiveness through transport reform and investments .
The Liner Shipping Connectivity Index ( LSCI ) ( UNCTAD )
The LSCI allows the assessment of maritime connectivity for container shipping , enabling comparisons between countries and over time . It is based on five components collected annually : a . The number of shipping lines servicing a country ; b . The size of the largest vessel used on these services ( in TEU ); c . The number of services connecting a country to other countries ; d . The total number of vessels deployed in a country ; and e . The total capacity of those vessels ( in TEU )
China is the best-connected country , with a score of 100 in 2004 and 159 in 2017 .
The Liner Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Index ( LSBCI )
Compared to LSCI , LSBCI assesses the quality of links , with an emphasis on routes with transshipments , namely indirect connections . UNCTAD assesses the maritime connectivity of country pairs using five indicators : a . The minimum number of trans-shipments needed to connect two countries , varying between 0 and 3 ; b . The number of direct connections common to the two countries . This indicator counts all the potential connections between two countries with a single transhipment . It considers the common connections of each one of the two countries with the rest of the world , even if the two are not necessarily connected by a direct service ; c . The geometric mean of the number of direct connections of each one of the two countries ; d . The number of shipping companies linking both countries using direct and indirect routes ; and e . The size of the largest vessel used on the thinnest part of the itinerary between the two countries .
The LSCI considers the connections of a country globally . A country very well connected to some countries and very badly connected to others will get an average score .
Both LSCI and LSBCI are a result of the sum of several factors aiming to reflect the potential for competition of the centrality of networks . While large variations or shifts in trends certainly reflect real changes , small variations from one year to another , or within the country rankings of LSCI or LSBCI should be interpreted with great caution .
The indicators are often calculated at a country level . Both indexes rely on several indicators whose details disappear . Therefore , variations in connectivity scores do not provide information with respect to the contribution of each component .
76 VOL 92 OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2022