The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has once again maintained its third position in the index which tracks the logistics sector performance in the emerging markets.
According to the latest updates, China and India remain the only two markets which are ahead of UAE in the ‘Agility Emerging Markets Index’.
This is the 6th successive year when UAE has been ranked third with the country featuring in top-10 in all three sub-Indices. The report states:
[This is] …a result of the country’s continued open financial sector, transparent regulatory system and corruption protection frameworks and its progress towards a comprehensive national SME development strategy.
It is worth understanding how the Index ranks the countries. A total of 50 countries were taken into consideration and it ranked them attractive to logistics providers, freight forwarders, shipping lines, air cargo carriers and distributors.
After assessing all the factors, UAE came third once again. Speaking of other Gulf states, Saudi Arabia was ranked 6th, Qatar was one behind on 7th. Oman was on 14th, Bahrain at 15th, whereas Kuwait was lagging behind on 15th.
Elias Monem, who is the CEO of Middle East & Africa for Agility GIL, stated:
The Gulf nations continue to diversify, making steady progress in streamlining regulation and realizing increased digital capabilities. The entire region is growing and the outlook continues to be healthy as we enter the new decade.
The countries with least amount of potential in logistics markets in 2020 included Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, and Libya. The Index further listed the three main reasons to keep small businesses out of global trade:
- Trade Bureaucracy (17 percent)
- Government and/or Border Instability (14 percent)
- Unable to Compete in the Market with Larger Rivals (14 percent)
