Connections
57 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
Connections is a weekly series of knowledge notes from the World Bank Group’s Transport & Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Global Practice. It covers projects, experiences, and front-line developments.
Items in this collection
1 - 4 of 4
-
Publication
Competitiveness of South Asia's Container Ports: A Comprehensive Assessment of Performance, Drivers and Costs
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-10)South Asia’s seaports are crucial to the region’s economy. The region transports 75 percent of thevalue of its exports and imports by sea. Shipments are concentrated at the 14 largest container ports, which handle close to 100 percent of total container traffic. The performance of these ports has a crucial effect on the competitiveness of the region’s trade. Even though the South Asian port sector has experienced significant changes since the late 1990s — when the governments of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka reformed their port sectors to allow private participation—the performance of South Asia’s ports has received little attention. The World Bank undertook a comprehensive assessment of South Asia’s container ports to support South Asian governments and stakeholders in the sector. It sought to understand the links between performance and its drivers and costs and to identify whether and how performance might be improved. The study proposes an approach for improvement based on regional and global experience. -
Publication
Unlocking the Potential of Freight Logistics in India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-12)New, comprehensive analysis of data on the current routing of goods in India have positioned the country to break through its freight transport gridlocks and logistics inefficiencies. With a growth rate of more than 7 percent since 2014, India is the fastest growing major economy in the world. But as a share of its GDP, its logistics costs for moving freight are as high as 14 percentpercent of GDP, markedly more than the 8–10 percent for most advanced economies. The gap arises from excess costs generated by inefficiencies in the transport system, greater costs of storage and inventory and procedural delays. Closing that gap would give a major boost to India’s growth prospects. Studies of logistics improvements in advanced economies have shown that, with sufficiently detailed data on freight flows, targeted interventions in specific corridors andsubsectors can enable transformational changes in freight logistics performance. Researchersand logistics experts from the World Bank and South Africa’s Stellenbosch University have assembled and modeled such data for India, identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for morestrategic investment and collocation of activities to achieve production synergies and lower thecosts of logistics and trade. -
Publication
Transport Policies for Climate Change: The Transformative Role Transport Can Play in Mitigation and Adaptation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-05)The choices developing countries make today in building and expanding transport networks will irreversibly shape development for the next century. That is why urgent steps are needed to ensure that transport development avoids locking in carbon intensive or high-risk patterns. While investments in urban planning and public transportation pay off over the long term, they also entail high up-front costs, making it essential to scale up support from the World Bank Group and other international institutions. The commitment to achieving zero net emissions by 2100 made at the Paris climate negotiations cannot be achieved without radical changes in how cities grow, and transport planning must be part of green growth strategies. Furthermore, climate-related issues such as food security, extreme weather events, and the health impacts of urban pollution have ties to the quality, affordability, and availability of affordable transport in both rural and urban areas. With many cities in developing countries only now planning transport infrastructure, this is the ideal time to ensure that transport planning incorporates climate-smart and low-carbon priorities. -
Publication
Keys to Attracting Private Capital for Railway Development
(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2015-01)Two of the largest railway systems in the world, China’s and India’s, have intensified their focus on the private sector as an indispensable source of capital to help them enlarge their rail capacity. They will find promising options if they recognize the common characteristics of successful efforts, both in their railways and elsewhere: profitability, manageable risks shared appropriately, and shared gains. Even unprofitable rail activities, such as commuter transit, can attract private capital if adequate public subsidies are in place.