Publication:
Greek Logistics : Unlocking Growth Potential through Regulatory Reform and Complementary Measures

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (2.21 MB)
1,498 downloads
English Text (443.65 KB)
349 downloads
Published
2013-11
ISSN
Date
2014-01-31
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The World Bank Group (WBG) wrote this report as part of a project designed to assess the competitiveness of the logistics sector in Greece and to develop policy recommendations. The World Bank is carrying out the project at the request of the Greek Ministry of Development, Competitiveness, Infrastructure, Transport, and Networks (currently split into the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness and the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks). The report is part of a technical assistance package provided by the World Bank Group to the Government of Greece on enhancing the business environment and trade logistics. The package has been facilitated by the Task Force for Greece (TFGR, an arm of the European Commission), which arranged the financing from the EC technical assistance budget. The document is structured in the following way: First, it provides an overview of the state of logistics in Greece, comparing the country to its peers and highlighting some of the important features that distinguish the country's situation. Second, it provides detailed, technical observations on specific aspects of the logistics environment in Greece. Third, the report describes key actions, drawn from both expert observations and the working groups' conclusions that the Greek government may want to undertake to improve its logistics performance. Finally, in the Annexes it describes the intensive, consultation process that is allowing key stakeholders within the business and policy-making communities in Greece to provide inputs for a national logistics strategy.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2013. Greek Logistics : Unlocking Growth Potential through Regulatory Reform and Complementary Measures. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16764 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Uruguay - Trade and Logistics : An Opportunity - Main Report
    (World Bank, 2010-04-15) World Bank
    Globalization has brought about a rapid expansion of international trade and a dramatic change in trade structure. The liberalization of trade in goods and services, containerization, new integrated transport networks, advances in information communication technology and modern business logistics have created unprecedented business opportunities for the trade and transport industries, as firms increasingly rely on global supply chains for production and distribution. In response to the government's request, this study assesses Uruguay's potential as a logistics hub and as a regional distribution center. The competitiveness of Uruguay's logistics system is assessed from an international perspective and policy recommendations towards further efficiency gains are provided. The study focuses on policies related to enhancing domestic and regional trade facilitation and assesses the wider economic impact of such reforms on logistics costs and trade.
  • Publication
    Handshake, No. 8 (January 2013)
    (International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2013-01) International Finance Corporation; Buckholtz, Alison
    This issue includes the following headings: infrastructure - A new direction for New Zealand schools, Primary schools, primary importance, Sustainable school buildings, and PPPs build the future; services - A charter for change, vouching for the future, Low fees, high hopes, Private schools for the poor, and Governments and business schools; innovation - Education for the 21st century, Access for all, Bricks and clicks, Open education goes the distance, Grading teachers, M is for mobile, Online learning; and interviews - Michelle Rhee, Emily Lawson, and Arne Duncan.
  • Publication
    Handshake, No. 6 (July 2012)
    (International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2012-07) International Finance Corporation
    Air and sea transport power the global economy. Since the vast majority of trade is physical, it must travel by plane or ship to reach its market. In fact, high value, time-sensitive goods usually fly through at least two airports, and almost every container passes through at least two seaports. When ports are efficient, people receive the goods theyre waiting for, sellers receive payment, and global economic development is strengthened. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) push this development forward with greater speed and richer benefits. In this issue, handshake turns its attention to air and sea transport (expect a companion issue on road and rail in October 2012). In the air, we deconstruct myths surrounding airport PPPs, learn brutally honest lessons from experiences in airline privatization, and revisit the liberalization of African skies. For seaports, the authors examine private investment, glimpse the post concession era, and witness the PPP evolution.
  • Publication
    Connecting to Compete 2012 : Trade Logistics in the Global Economy
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012) Mustra, Monica Alina; Arvis, Jean-François; Ojala, Lauri; Shepherd, Ben; Saslavsky, Daniel
    This is the third edition of connecting to compete: trade logistics in the global economy. At its heart is the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which the World Bank has produced every two years since 2007. The LPI measures on-the-ground trade logistics performance this year, in 155 countries helping national leaders, key policymakers, and private sector traders understand the challenges they and their trading partners face in reducing logistical barriers to international commerce. Logistics, organizing the movement of goods over time and space, has evolved from its 19th century military roots to today's international supply chains. As the backbone of international trade, logistics encompasses freight transportation, warehousing, border clearance, payment systems, and many other functions. These functions are performed mostly by private service providers for private traders and owners of goods, but logistics is also important for the public policies of national governments and regional and international organizations. The LPI provides a simple, global benchmark to measure logistics performance, filling gaps in datasets by providing systematic, cross-country comparisons. A joint venture of the World Bank, logistics service providers, and academics, the LPI is built around a survey of logistics professionals. By asking freight forwarders to rate countries on key logistics issues such as customs clearance efficiency, infrastructure quality, and the ability to track cargo it captures a broad set of elements that affect perceptions of the efficiency of trade logistics in practice.
  • Publication
    OECS Ports : An Efficiency and Performance Assessment
    (World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2015-01) Cubas, Diana; Briceno-Garmendia, Cecilia; Bofinger, Heinrich C.
    Handling charges in Caribbean ports are two to three times higher than in similar ports in other regions of the world. In some cases, it costs significantly less to ship a container to Hong Kong SAR, China, or Europe than it does to ship to a neighboring island no more than 100 miles away. The reasons for high port-handling costs are linked to procedural inefficiencies along the logistics chain, high freight rates that shipping lines attribute to empty backhauls, and the poor performance of port management and operations. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States shares the larger Caribbean region's advantages, challenges, and concerns related to the performance of port management and operations. Yet performance assessments have been difficult to make because of data constraints. This report seeks to provide such an assessment along four distinct policy dimensions: (i) traffic development, (ii) the institutional and regulatory framework, (iii) infrastructure development, and (iv) performance, including pricing and finance issues. The report concludes by benchmarking the efficiency of Organization of Eastern Caribbean States ports against other Latin American ports using a stochastic frontier approach, and providing a list of next steps for further research and policy prioritization. To make the current analysis possible, a rigorous exercise in the collection of primary data was conducted, using standardized templates adapted specifically to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States context. The collection of data proved to be particularly difficult on financial and performance metrics, since many of the ports lack strong statistical systems and institutions.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17) Wai-Poi, Matthew; Sosa, Mariano; Bachas, Pierre
    Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03) World Bank Group
    This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.
  • Publication
    Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-04) Zhang, Fan; Borja-Vega, Christian; Chandanpurkar, Hrishikesh Arvind; Famiglietti, James; Hogeboom, Rick; Namara, Regassa; Rasul, Zarif; Luengas-Sierra, Pavel; Rao, Deyu
    Grounded in new evidence from satellite data, “Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future” presents the first global assessment of freshwater reserves over the past two decades. The findings expose an alarming trend of “continental drying,” a persistent long-term decline in freshwater availability across vast landmasses. Not only are droughts and deluges becoming more unpredictable, but the total amount of freshwater available for use has also significantly declined. Continental drying, driven by global warming, worsening droughts, and unsustainable water and land use, is a silent but accelerating crisis—largely unknown to the public—that reshapes the global water narrative. Continental drying raises profound risks. This report reveals new empirical evidence showing how freshwater depletion leads to major job losses, reduced incomes, wildfires, and biodiversity threats. In the long term, the combined effects of drying and warming could push societies toward a tipping point where damage accelerates rapidly and adaptation becomes increasingly difficult. Against the backdrop of continental drying, global water consumption rose by 25 percent between 2000 and 2019, with about a third of this increase occurring in regions already experiencing drying. Compounding the pressure, a substantial share of water use in drying regions remains inefficient. Continental Drying identifies hot spots where rising demand and declining supply converge and explores where and how water savings can be realized. This report recommends a three-pronged approach to address the crisis: managing demand, augmenting water supply, and improving water allocation. Five cross-cutting levers—strengthening institutions, reforming water tariffs and repurposing subsidies, adopting water accounting, leveraging data and technological innovations, and valuing water in trade—are essential for effective implementation and to attract private investment to finance the approach. Beyond water, addressing trade barriers, investing in education and skills development, and improving access to markets and financial services are critical for strengthening job and livelihood resilience amid a continental drying crisis.
  • Publication
    Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12) Iimi, Atsushi
    Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.