Cost, value of logistics to be disclosed

"The figures for both value and cost of logistics to GDP can be used as a reference," Pongchai Athikomrattanakul, director of the Centre for Logistics Excellence at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, said yesterday.

He told an academic seminar on the project for increasing the competitiveness of the logistics industry that the study's results would be finalised and ready to be released by next month.

The survey was initiated last

year by the NESDB in collaboration with the Centre for Logistics Excellence.

Questionnaires were sent to logistics service providers and related businesses.

The project would suggest guidelines for determining sub-sectors of the logistics industry so that the country will have a standard for calculating its logistics costs and value more suitably.

The logistics industry's cost and value will be divided into sub-sectors in line with international standards, which will let the government evaluate the status, potential and competitiveness of the logistics industry in a bid to restructure the country's productive sector.

The cost and value-added of the logistics industry to GDP would also be used as indicators to measure the industry's status, readiness and success.

The study's preliminary out-

come presented yesterday points

out that some suitable sub-sectors are mass-transit services by road

and air, freight services by road

and air, operation of refrigerat-

ed warehouses, and freight forwarding.

"Dividing into sub-sectors will help in accessing the value of the logistics industry more precisely," Pongchai said.

Calculating the logistics industry's cost and value would be multidimensional - value of the logistics industry, cost of the logistics industry, and the value and cost of the logistics industry to GDP.

According to the study, the value of the logistics industry to GDP was 3.26 per cent in 2005 and 3.32 per cent in 2006. GDP in 2005 was Bt7.09 trillion and in 2006 was Bt7.83 trillion.

The study showed that as the global oil price shifted upwards, transportation cost climbed by 13 per cent to Bt708.82 billion in 2006.

The logistics cost to GDP in 2006 was 17.6 per cent, up from 17.1 per cent in the previous year.