Ukrainian Railroad Infrastructure – Best in CIS

Kyiv, June 1, 2012. Latest Global Enabling Trade Report of the World Economic Forum lists Ukraine as number 27 in the world (132 countries) regarding railroad infrastructure development. The country scored the average of 4.4 points (with a maximum of seven, which stands for extensive and efficient infrastructure by international standards), making it number one among the CIS countries.

Switzerland tops the GETR 2012 list of countries with developed railroad infrastructure. The European country “boasts an excellent infrastructure for roads, railroads, and air transport, which partially compensates for the disadvantage of being landlocked”, states the report. Japan, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and Finland follow Switzerland in world’s top ten countries with most developed railroads, according to GETR 2012.

Besides Ukraine, Russia is another CIS country to have made it to the top 30 countries in the world with the most developed railroad infrastructure. It received 4.2 points and took the 30^th spot on the list. Kazakhstan managed to make it to number 34 on the list with average score of 3.9. Notably, many developed countries did not rank high – Italy ended up at number 45, Norway – 55, Brazil – 93, Iceland – 108.

Ukraine’s neighbor Poland occupies the 75^th spot in the railroad quality list. Interestingly, Ukraine is followed by Australia which is number 28 with 4.3 average score regarding railroad infrastructure.

Ukraine also showed high results in tariff dispersion, taking the ninth spot on the GETR 2012. This indicator reflects the level of tariff complexity and belongs to the market access subindex. The figures in the subindex measure the extent to which the policy framework of the country welcomes foreign goods into the country and enables access to foreign markets for its exporters.

High tariff dispersion means that there is a lot of variation in the tariff schedule. Economists tend to name a uniform tariff with low dispersion to be most efficient. Hong Kong tops the tariff dispersion list of the Global Enabling Trade 2012 Report with zero tariff dispersion.

Chile and Mongolia also show low tariff dispersion – 0.4 and 0.6 respectively. Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Peru, and Yemen continue the list at fourth to eighth positions. Curiously, the USA takes only 17^th place on the list with 5.8 tariff dispersion.