Maritime Transportation Services: Potential of developing economies

By: Manuela Ramírez Cárdenas*

Political Sciences and International Business student at Universidad EAFIT (Colombia)


Maritime transportation is the predominant mode of transport of global trade, as it handles over 80 percent of its volume and, most importantly, it accounts for over 70 percent of its value (UNCTAD, 2012, p. 44).

Due to the importance of maritime transportation UNCTAD has published annually, since 1968, The Review of Maritime Transportation, a publication in which they provide statistics and analyze the structure, changes, trends and challenges of international seaborne trade.

Although merchandise trade, either by containers or in bulk, composes most of the volume and value of maritime transportation, the provision of services related to international seaborne trade is also of relevance. The activities within the services sector related to the transport industry include: ship building, ship registration, ship operation, ship recycling, ship financing, classification and insurance.

Most of the services used in the transport industry have been traditionally provided by developed economies, however the current trend is that both developed and developing economies are specializing in few of the activities within the services sector, particularly those developing economies that have managed to increase their competitiveness in the maritime sectors. For example, Bangladesh has focused on providing the recycling of ships and has been quite successful at it.

UNCTAD has proposed that developing countries have a great potential for becoming important participants in the services market, however they also clarify that that incorporation in the market depends on several factors, like political and geographical circumstances. Also, developing countries face two main challenges to enter the services sector: the concentration of the market and the country’s level of economic development.

As mentioned previously, the trend is that countries specialize in few activities of transport services, and some of those activities are highly concentrated in a handful of countries. For example in construction, recycling and insurance of ships only four countries represent over 90 percent of the market. Activities such as financing and insurance require a high level of economic development.

UNCTAD suggest that if a developing country wants to incorporate itself in the maritime transportation services sector and it doesn’t have the adequate conditions to overcome the two challenges mentioned previously, it should focus on the activities that are less concentrated and require a lower economic development level, such as ship registration or seafarer or officers supply.

Sources:

UNCTAD (2012). World Economic Situation and Perspectives Report. p. 41-66.
UNCTAD (2011). Review of Maritime Transport.

Colombian transportation services from the UNCTAD’s perception

By: Carolina Herrrera Cano* (caroherca@gmail.com)
International Business student, Universidad EAFIT, Colombia

Nowadays, the different services related with the transport industry like: operation, administration, licensing, insurances, financing, and recycling, are also related with certain economies in which those activities are more competitive. For instance, developed countries usually undertake activities like insurance, and financing that generate more value added. UNCTAD works together with governments in the process of increasing trade in global economy.

Dr. Vincent F. Valentine Officer-in-Charge, Transport Section Trade Logistics Branch at UNCTAD describes the current conditions of the transportation services in the world. Dr. Valentine emphasizes some principles of the global transportation services that could be implemented in Colombia in order to increase competitiveness in this sector, and to take advantages of the current regional integration processes.

Surprisingly, after asking about infrastructure problems that the country faces today, Dr. Valentine argues that “actually infrastructure should not become such an important effort in governmental agendas, it is currently more crucial to have availability of efficient customs, consolidation process (at ports), administration procedures”. Dr. Valentine calls these “soft practices”, which are activities in which countries should specialize if they want to be attractive for international trade. In this sense, the impossibility to maintain investment flows in the country through the years makes this option dangerous for the economies: countries should not depend on this capital injections, but they should increase efficiency by creating a qualified labor force that works both inside, and outside of the ports: transportation is a service that must involve complementary activities from different areas.

For the case of Latin American countries, Professor Vincent Valentine suggests the use of any of the following patterns: (i) to be efficient in the traditional import-export model; (ii) to work as a logistics center for certain industries, and (iii) to serve as a “transshipment” port (acting as intermediaries, and working in a parallel way with import-export ports). In this third model, Mr. Valentine suggests that countries with few opportunities to compete with countries with high development in transportation services (such as Colombia, being next to Panama) could act as a hub for the rest of the region. This is how Colombia should increase its efforts to improve its “soft” practices, and to take advantages of regional integration in order to represent an attractive destination for international trade.