KUALA LUMPUR(Feb 23): Malaysia is the third most connected country in SouthEast Asia (SEA), and ranks twenty first among 140 countries in terms of global connectedness, according to the third DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI) which measures cross-border flows of trade, capital, information and people.

In a statement today, DHL Express (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd  said that Malaysia came in third among its SEA neighbours, after Thailand ( ranked 19th globally) and Singapore (3rd globally). Vietnam had come in at 33rd on a global ranking  and Cambodia at 48th. while the Philippines took the 58th spot.

“Malaysia is one of the four SEA economies including Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam that stood out for its high depth scores relative to expectations based on structural characteristics such as size and level of economic development,” said DHL Express.

It added that the GCI indicates that countries in this region have particularly high trade pillar scores reflecting the integration into cross-country supply chains as well as national policies that have boosted their depth scores.

“The GCI gives a detailed analysis of the state of globalization around the world, including in-depth insights into the connectedness of individual countries and regions,” said DHL.

DHL Express Malaysia and Brunei managing director Christopher Ong said that Asian economies stand out for their high international connectedness score.

“For Malaysia, we have responded to the increased logistics demand by making significant investments to further enhance connectivity to major trade lanes,” said Ong.

The 2014 DHL GCI report was commissioned by the DHL Group and prepared by Pankaj Ghemawat, who is a  professor at New York University(NYU) Stern School of Business and at Institute of Higher Business Studies (IESE) Business School in Barcelona, Spain, together with senior research scholar at NYU Stern Steven A. Altman.

The index draws on more than 1 million data points from international flows covering trade, capital, information and people accumulated over the last nine years. The ranking encompasses 99% of the world’s gross domestic product and 95% of its population.