Transport Logistics

viii) Need to recognise the diversity between countries

Countries have diverse social and geographic features and are at different stages of economic

development with widely divergent transport systems and operating structures. This needs to be

recognised in developing logistics policies.

In Europe, differences in company use of logistics for single countries should not be neglected in

the development of EU transport policy. The differences pose threats to countries not belonging to the

core of Europe (peripheral regions and Eastern Europe).

The volume of trade in Asia has greatly increased due to export oriented policies. The region has

seen acceleration towards globalisation of domestic economies, reflecting the increase in the activities

of multi-national companies both in the region and beyond the region. Improvement of domestic

transport in Asian countries is also an important issue for securing the reliability of freight transport

associated with globalised production and logistics.

However, logistics laws and regulations are quite diverse in each Asian country (OECD, 2000).

Countries also differ in their level of economic development, industrial structure, and level of

infrastructure development including transportation and telecommunication. In some Asian countries,

outdated operations and ineffective organisations threaten to constrain their ability to achieve efficient

logistics operations and impede future development of sophisticated logistics. In most developing

countries, logistic policies and logistics researchers are lacking.

Hence, in order to develop an efficient global logistics network, these diversities need to be

recognised. However, it is essential that policies be directed toward minimising sources of inefficiency

attributable to such differences and to standardising the operating characteristics of logistic systems to

achieve seamless transport wherever possible.  Otherwise, industry may by-pass those trading

environments that are overly complex or costly, to the disadvantage of the country concerned.

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