Publication: Accelerating Digitalization: Critical Actions to Strengthen the Resilience of the Maritime Supply Chain
Loading...
Other Files
1,901 downloads
Published
2020-12
ISSN
Date
2021-01-27
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has upended lives and brought major disruption to economic activity across the world, precipitating an unprecedented global health and economic crisis. One of the key lessons learned early in the pandemic was the need to ensure business continuity of the critical supply lines, notably the maritime gateways, and the associated logistical chains. However, the maritime ports are also just one node in a complex logistical chain involving a number of interactions; digitization is vital to improving the competitiveness of that chain. A number of global organizations, such as United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), World Customs Organization (WCO), World Trade Organization (WTO), and International Maritime Organization (IMO) have been advocating the accelerated digitalization of cross-border processes and documentation. This report highlights the immediate, short-, and medium-term measures considered necessary to strengthen the resilience of the maritime and logistics sector, to build back better, and more importantly ensure countries realize the significant potential efficiency gains of digitization. This report underlines digitalization as not solely a technological issue, but also as human capital and institutional issues. Any move towards increased digitization will require a high level of political commitment, while the establishment must have an appropriate legal, regulatory, and policy framework at the national level, across the different disciplines of the maritime, port, clearance agencies, and the transport and logistics sector.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2020. Accelerating Digitalization: Critical Actions to Strengthen the Resilience of the Maritime Supply Chain. Mobility and Transport Connectivity;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35063 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Trading Up : How Tunisia Used ICT to Facilitate Trade(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-04)Although trade liberalization can create jobs and raise incomes, these benefits are easily undermined if excessive costs and delays hinder trade transactions - reducing a country's export competitiveness. This note shows how Tunisia embraced information and communications technology (ICT) to facilitate trade - cutting costs, saving time, and increasing international competitiveness. It also highlights the context and challenges, key initiatives, success factors, and impact of Tunisia's efforts. Trade clearances can improve dramatically when administrative and political commitment combines with advances in information and communications technology.Publication Authentication and Digital Signatures in E-Law and Security : A Guide for Legislators and Managers(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-12)The concept of authentication has been around for a long time in many forms. For example due diligence in commerce has traditionally been formalized to determine whether the data presented in commercial propositions are accurate and comprehensive. With the emergence of e-commerce the concept of authentication has encompassed new realities that are a feature of the relatively narrow avenues for information and potentially high risks inherent in an online environment. This paper seeks to provide an understanding about the different ways of assuring authentication. These authentication rules and tools including for example public key infrastructure (PKI) are sometimes meant to set a legal and technological framework for trustworthy electronic transactions, promoting e-procurement, e-commerce, e-business, and e-government. The two considerations of business risk and legal validity are both intrinsic to the concept of authentication. This report explores the issues and solutions affecting the concept of authentication in terms of legislation, management and technology. This report finds that for online authentication things is not always what they may seem and that legislation and technology alone cannot build a trust environment and, if misunderstood, may produce a high risk illusion. It is crucial that the limitations and fallibility of the technology be explicit in its commercial applications and that business risks be managed accordingly.Publication China's Expressways : Connecting People and Markets for Equitable Development(Washington, DC, 2007-05)This paper, prepared in response to the Chinese government's request, examines the institutional and financial arrangements under which the expansion of the Chinese expressway network has taken place. China's outstanding achievements in economic growth and poverty reduction over the last fifteen years have been well documented. The major emphasis has been on the development of its infrastructure, particularly transport. All modes of transport have seen their networks expanded, to provide the infrastructure needed to support the broader development goals. Road transport is vitally important and, among the surface modes, has seen its share grow over the last ten years from 45 percent to 60 percent in terms of passenger-km and from 24 percent to 30 percent in terms of freight ton-km. The road transport system has contributed greatly to china's continuing economic and social development. The expansion of the road network during the last 20 years was made possible by rapid increases in public funding. Since 1990, the overall average growth in the Chinese road assets has exceeded the overall growth in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and has helped to close the 'infrastructure gap' that existed at the beginning of the period.Publication Connecting to Compete 2007(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-01)This is the first report presenting the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and indicators. It aims to shed light on how different countries are doing in the area of trade logistics, and what they can do to improve their performance. It is based on a worldwide survey of the global freight forwarders and express carriers who are the most active in international trade. LPI and its underlying indicators constitute a unique dataset to measure country performance across several dimensions of logistics and to benchmark that logistics performance against 150 countries. It provides the empirical basis to understand and compare differences in trade logistics as well as to inform policy with respect to difficult bottlenecks and tradeoffs. As a tool for policymakers, professionals, development agencies, and other stakeholders, it will directly support the fast-growing agenda for reforms and investments in trade and transport facilitation. The report provides some insights on the cost of poor logistics to country competitiveness and the sources of those higher costs. Beyond cost and time taken to deliver goods, the predictability and reliability of supply chains is increasingly important in a world of just-in-time production sharing. Costs related to hedging against uncertainty are significant. Equally, cost and quality of logistics are determined not just by infrastructure and the performance of public agencies, but also by the availability of quality and competitive private services. Moreover, in many developing countries, problems of adverse geography are compounded by a weak modern services sector due to poor institutions or over-regulation. The report closes with some practical insights, advocating a comprehensive, integrated approach to ensure that actions in one area are not rendered ineffective by bottlenecks in another.Publication Digital Identity Toolkit : A Guide for Stakeholders in Africa(Washington, DC, 2014-06)Digital identity, or electronic identity (eID), offers developing nations a unique opportunity to accelerate the pace of their national progress. It changes the way services are delivered, helps grow a country's digital economy, and supports effective safety nets for disadvantaged and impoverished populations. Though digital identity is an opportunity, it raises important considerations with respect to privacy, cost, capacity, and long-term viability. This report provides a strategic view of the role of identification in a country's national development, as well as a tactical view of the building blocks and policy choices needed for setting up eID in a developing country. The report presents a conceptual overview of digital identity management practices, providing a set of guidelines at a national level that policymakers can find helpful as they begin to think about modernizing the identity infrastructure of their country into eID. The report also provides an operating knowledge of the terminology and concepts used in identity management and an exposition of the functional blocks that must be in place. Policy considerations are referenced at the end of the report that governments can use as they contemplate a digital identity program. Given its abridged nature, the report is intended to be insightful and detailed, though not exhaustive. Several important topics related to eID are noted though deserve further discussion, including: economic and financial analysis, the development and setup of a national civil register, and cross-border aspects of eID. The building blocks, as discussed, can help ensure that a secure, robust and reliable digital identity platform can serve the development needs of a country for the foreseeable future.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2020 to 2024: Trends and Lessons Learned(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-22)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) provides a global benchmark of how container ports perform in handling vessel calls. Developed jointly by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, it measures the time ships spend in port and relates this to the number of containers moved during that time. This approach makes the CPPI a unique diagnostic tool that can highlight patterns in port operations and shed light on global and regional supply chain dynamics. Now in its fifth edition, the CPPI report covers the period from 2020 to 2024. It builds on a well-established methodology to generate scores for more than 400 container ports worldwide. Over time, the CPPI has become a trusted reference point for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers who seek to understand how ports adapt to shocks, recover from disruptions, and identify opportunities for investments, reform and modernization. A major innovation in this edition is the introduction of multi-year trend analysis. Rather than presenting annual snapshots, the report now tracks how CPPI scores have changed across five years. This longitudinal perspective reveals shifts in port performance, showing where scores have risen, fallen, or remained stable. By linking these movements to external factors, the CPPI offers insights into how global and regional supply chains evolve under pressure. The results clearly mirror the crises that have shaken global trade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CPPI scores in different regions declined sharply as congestion, equipment shortages, and delays overwhelmed many ports. By 2023, global averages rebounded in parallel with easing freight markets and reduced congestion. Yet 2024 brought new challenges: the Red Sea crisis disrupted major trade lanes, while climate-related constraints at the Panama Canal added further stress. These shocks were reflected in lower global and several regional average scores, underscoring the vulnerability of maritime transport to geopolitical and environmental events. The CPPI is not about comparing one port against another, but about understanding changes in performance over time. Ports that improved their scores often did so by reducing time at anchor, optimizing berth operations, investing in digital tools, and strengthening coordination across logistics partners. The evidence confirms that improvements are possible across ports of all sizes, and that rising scores are linked to deliberate actions to minimize time in port relative to containers moved. By consolidating five years of results, this edition transforms the CPPI into a long-term reference point. It shows how global crises have affected shipping, how different regions have adapted, and what lessons can be drawn for future resilience. The World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence remain committed to maintaining the CPPI as a global public good, providing transparency, comparability, and practical insights to support more reliable and sustainable maritime supply chains.Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) measures the time container ships spend in port, making it an important point of reference for stakeholders in the global economy. These stakeholders include port authorities and operators, national governments, supranational organizations, development agencies, and other public and private players in trade and logistics. The index highlights where vessel time in container ports could be improved. Streamlining these processes would benefit all parties involved, including shipping lines, national governments, and consumers. This fourth edition of the CPPI relies on data from 405 container ports with at least 24 container ship port calls in the calendar year 2023. As in earlier editions of the CPPI, the ranking employs two different methodological approaches: an administrative (technical) approach and a statistical approach (using matrix factorization). Combining these two approaches ensures that the overall ranking of container ports reflects actual port performance as closely as possible while also being statistically robust. The CPPI methodology assesses the sequential steps of a container ship port call. ‘Total port hours’ refers to the total time elapsed from the moment a ship arrives at the port until the vessel leaves the berth after completing its cargo operations. The CPPI uses time as an indicator because time is very important to shipping lines, ports, and the entire logistics chain. However, time, as captured by the CPPI, is not the only way to measure port efficiency, so it does not tell the entire story of a port’s performance. Factors that can influence the time vessels spend in ports can be location-specific and under the port’s control (endogenous) or external and beyond the control of the port (exogenous). The CPPI measures time spent in container ports, strictly based on quantitative data only, which do not reveal the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times. A detailed port-specific diagnostic would be required to assess the contribution of underlying factors to the time a vessel spends in port. A very low ranking or a significant change in ranking may warrant special attention, for which the World Bank generally recommends a detailed diagnostic.