UAE placed among top 5 countries in global connectedness index

The UAE emerged as one of the top five connected nations in the world according to DHL’s Global Connectedness Index 2020.

The report, compiled by the German logistics company, DHL and New York University’s Stern Business School, finds UAE along with the Netherlands, Singapore, Belgium and Ireland as the most globally connected countries.

The ranking evaluates globalization during the COVID-19 by tracking the international flow of trade, capital, information and people across 169 countries and territories.

The report shows that even though COVID-19 has distorted business and life across the world, it has not created any critical disruptions to the fundamental links that connect nations. Though the pandemic did not collapse globalization it transformed the link between countries, at least temporarily.

“The UAE’s robust logistics capabilities and transport infrastructure enabled the country to sustain open supply chains and trade links, which ensured that local access to COVID-19 tests and the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for nationals and residents was one of the highest in the world.”

After holding steadily in 2019, the index is expected to fall significantly in 2020 due to the social distancing effects of COVID-19, like the closed borders, travel bans and grounded passenger airlines.

The report suggest that the pandemic is unlikely to pull down the overall level of connectedness below the 2008-2009 global financial crisis stage. A recovery in trade and capital flows is already visible and the eCommerce industry has also surged as the consumers increasingly relied on online shopping during the lockdown.

“Stronger global connectedness could accelerate the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, as countries that connect more to international flows tend to enjoy faster economic growth,” Steven Altman, senior research scholar and director of the DHL Initiative on Globalization at the NYU Stern School of Business, said.

The DHL Global Connectedness Index uses over 3.5 million data points to track the globalization of 169 countries over the period from 2001 to 2019. It measures every country’s global connectedness in terms of the size of its international flows relative to the size of its domestic economy and the extent to which its international flows are distributed globally.