BEIRUT: The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released its Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI), in which Lebanon fared relatively well in 2010 in comparison to its regional and global peers, coming in 39th out of 161 countries globally and seventh out of 17 countries surveyed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as reported by Bank Audi’s Lebanon Weekly Monitor.

The index aims at capturing a country’s level of integration into global liner shipping networks, which in turn measures the country’s access to world markets. UNCTAD indicated that the latter depends largely on a country’s transport connectivity, especially as regards to regular shipping services for the import and export of manufactured goods.

Lebanon’s ranking indicates that in the MENA region, Lebanon has the seventh highest access to world markets through its relatively well developed transport connectivity system, particularly when it comes to shipping services.

UNCTAD developed its index by measuring maritime transport activity indicators in each country, which include the total number of ships entering and exiting the ports of each country, the total tonnage of merchandise traded by the country, and the total number of cargos entering and exiting the country. The index also takes into account the ease of conducting maritime trade in each country, by measuring the ease of access to the country’s ports.

Globally, Lebanon came in directly ahead of Pakistan, Australia, and Argentina, while it came in directly after Sweden, Iran and Vietnam. Regionally, Lebanon surpassed Jordan and Syria, while it followed Egypt and Algeria. Lebanon’s regional ranking dropped one place, coming after Algeria whose ranking improved significantly, as its score rose from 8.37 in 2009 to 31.45 in 2010.

It is worth noting, however, that despite its slight drop in regional ranking, Lebanon’s overall score on the LSCI improved, reaching 30.29 this year relative to 29.55 last year, moving up by 2.5 percent in 2010. This shows a pick up in maritime activity in the country, in line with the regional and global economic recovery witnessed this year.

In the MENA region, 10 countries saw a year-on-year growth in their maritime transport activity in 2010, while seven countries witnessed a decline.

Algeria came first in terms of the growth of its maritime transport activity, followed by Syria and Qatar, while Libya, Jordan and Iraq saw annual decreases of 43 percent, 25 percent and 18 percent respectively in their LSCI.

When looking at the past five years, Lebanon’s LSCI score improved, from 12.5 in 2005 to 30.3 in 2010, which shows the expansion of its maritime trade services in order to enhance its access to worldwide markets.