A multi-pronged approach is needed to augment the performance of ports in South Asian region, a World Bank report today said.
It also suggested encouraging private sector participation in the ports sector.
The report said several of the ports -- including India's Jawaharlal Nehru and Mundra ports, Sri Lanka's Colombo port and Pakistan's Qasim -- improved their performance. On the other hand, two other Indian ports like Mumbai and Tuticorin were much behind in terms of performance.
A promising three-pronged approach for improving performance in the region would include encouraging private sector participation, strengthening governance of port authorities' boards and promoting competition between and within ports through transparent and competitive concession bidding, a World Bank report on "Competitiveness of South Asia's Container Ports" said today.
It said some ports "such as Colombo, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mundra, and Qasim, improved the use of their facilities between 2000 and 2010. Others, such as Mumbai and Tuticorin, fell further behind."
It said Colombo, which also improved its operational performance during this period by almost halving the share of idle time at berth, ranked as one of the top South Asian ports in 2010 in terms of operational and economic performance.
"Chittagong and Kolkata, which performed well in terms of the use of their facilities in 2010, ranked poorly on operational performance, with the longest vessel turnaround times in the region," it said.
South Asia's trade almost doubled in the past decade, with trade as a percentage of GDP increasing by 18 percentage points between 2000 and 2014.
Since 2000, the region has also enjoyed the second- highest economic growth in the world (after East Asia), growing at an average annual rate of 6.8 percent.
The report said, "Despite this progress, trade accounted for a smaller share of GDP in South Asia (47 percent) than in East Asia (55 per cent) in 2014, and South Asia's economic competitiveness continued to lag behind that of other regions.
Global indicators, such as the Global Competitiveness Report, point to shortcomings in the institutional, business, and investment environments and highlight concerns that the region may not have the infrastructure needed to compete more successfully in the global economy, the report added.
In all countries in the region except Sri Lanka, such indicators rank inadequate infrastructure among the most problematic factors for doing business.
"Weak transport and logistics services, including slow expansion of port capacity, contribute to South Asia's lack of competitiveness. On the 2014 Logistics Performance Index, South Asia trails both East Asia and middle-income countries in logistics performance, particularly in the infrastructure component," the report said.
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