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Luxembourg Ranks Fifth Worldwide In World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index
Luxembourg Ranks Fifth Worldwide
In World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index
- Rises from 23rd Worldwide in Prior LPI Survey -
New York and San Francisco, January 26, 2010 – A comprehensive new global survey ranks Luxembourg fifth in the world in ease of importing and exporting goods, according to the 2010 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and its underlying indicators. The LPI survey is a joint effort of the World Bank, logistics providers from around the world, and academic partners. The survey incorporated data from nearly 1,000 international freight-forwarders and express carriers engaged in world trade, using more than 5,000 individual country assessments to compare the trade logistics profiles of 155 countries.
The report rated quality of infrastructure, efficiency of clearance processes, logistics competence, timeliness, cost and other factors. The LPI Survey is conducted by the World Bank every two years to improve the reliability of the indicators and to build a dataset comparable across countries and over time.
Luxembourg places ahead of the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Hong Kong, the U.S., France, Spain and China – a significant advance from its 23rd rank in the 2007 LPI survey. Luxembourg’s latest standing attests to its advances in customs operations, infrastructure, international shipments, logistics competence, tracking and tracing, and timeliness.
Luxembourg logistics assets make for speedy access, low cost and high efficiency service to end customers:
80% of the European Union GDP can be serviced from Luxembourg in one day – The vast majority of the European Union’s Gross Domestic Product is within one day’s reach of Luxembourg – 500 miles or less. Luxembourg is at the heart of the European road and rail network: major north-south and east-west arteries give easy and uncongested access to the main European consumer markets, be it France or Germany, the Netherlands or Belgium, Italy or Switzerland and even most of the UK and parts of Scandinavia. The state-of-the-art road and rail infrastructure provides the distribution channels for one of Europe’s largest cargo airports – a global hub for cargo giants such as Cargolux, Panalpina, and China Airlines that link Luxembourg on a daily basis with the world’s main manufacturing centers.
No VAT pre-financing –Most EU nations require that importers pay value added tax (VAT) upon import of goods, prior to the sale to the end customer, a practice referred to as ‘pre-financing of VAT.’ Luxembourg’s advanced VAT regulations eliminate pre-financing, reducing the capital required and the administrative burden associated with VAT recovery. While some EU countries allow similar processes upon request and under certain conditions, Luxembourg is the only country that never requires pre-financing.
Lowest VAT rate in the EU – Standard Value Added Tax (VAT) rates in the European Union vary from 15 percent to 25 percent. Luxembourg has consistently had the lowest VAT rate across the European Union (i.e. 15 percent). This rate applies in particular to all services electronically delivered from Luxembourg to all other EU countries. A number of large international Internet and e-commerce businesses have taken advantage of this provision and have established subsidiaries in Luxembourg.
World-class manufacturers such as Goodyear, DuPont and Delphi Automotive, ArcelorMittal and Fanuc and top technology companies including Skype, Apple, eBay, PayPal and Amazon operate successful businesses in Luxembourg, and capitalize – directly or via a logistics partner - on these unique circumstances and use Luxembourg as an effective, efficient logistics hub.
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The LPI survey was designed and implemented by the World Bank International Trade and Transport Departments, with Finland's Turku School of Economics (TSE). It was endorsed and promoted by the Global Facilitation Partnership for Transportation and Trade (GFP).
The survey can be found at this URL:
For further information:
http:// www.luxembourgforbusiness.lu/