The global economic recession of the past two years has impeded improvements in shipping and storage throughout the world but countries that adopted aggressive reforms saw steady development in that industry, according to a survey on trade logistics released by the World Bank on Wednesday.

China is among the few countries that have a bureau for logistics development and is one of the best performing members of the countries that fall into a non-high-income group, the survey said.

Of the 155 economies gauged according to logistics performance indicators, which were considered by the World Bank report, Singapore was at the top.

And many countries, including China, India, Morocco, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States, improved their previous performances, according to the study, which was based on a comprehensive world survey of international freight forwarders and express carriers.

"Trade logistics is key to economic competitiveness, growth and poverty reduction," said Otaviano Canuto, World Bank vice-president for poverty reduction and economic management.

"Unfortunately, the logistics gap between rich and poor countries continues and the convergence trend experienced between 2007 and 2010 has stalled as events like the global recession, and the European debt crisis, shifted attention away from logistics reform."

Gauged according to logistics performance indicators, high-income economies come in near the top of the rankings, while the least developed economies were the ones that had the worst showings. Many of those are either in landlocked places, on small islands, or in states that have recently been in conflicts.

But countries' performances were not simply a result of their per capita income.

Those belonging to any particular income group showed a lot of variety in their rankings.

"Infrastructure stands out as the chief driver of progress in top performers, followed by improvements in logistics services, and customs and border management," said Mona Haddad, sector manager of the World Bank's international trade department.

"All top performers show strong cooperation between the public and private sectors, and a comprehensive approach in the development of services, infrastructure and efficient logistics."

zhousiyu@chinadaily.com.cn