Bangladesh became the 72nd leading country in the global commercial services trade in the last year, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The country improved its ranking modestly within a year. It was ranked 80th in the commercial services trade in 2019.
The commercial services include transport, travel, financial services, legal services, computer services and professional services and good-related services.
World Trade Statistical Review 2021, released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, unveiled the statistics.
It showed that Bangladesh one of the 11 most rank-improving countries in trade in commercial services in the last year.
Macao [of China] experienced the sharpest fall in the ranking for services trade, dropping from 44th position in 2019 to 64th in 2020.
“Economies where commercial services trade mostly consists of tourism and travel services witnessed a big decline in their ranking in 2020,” said the flagship report of the WTO.
The report mentioned that world commercial services trade was down 19 per cent for exports and 18 per cent for imports in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2019.
It also showed that commercial services exports dropped by 20 per cent to US$ 4.91 trillion in the last year.
The flagship publication of the WTO presented recent trends in world trade and seeks to provide statistical insights on the trade impact of Covid-19.
“The share of transport and travel in total services trade declined from 43 per cent to 31 per cent in 2020,” said the report.
It mentioned that travel and transport were the hardest hit by Covid-19 and associated travel restrictions.
“Other commercial services - including financial services, legal services, computer services and professional services - increased their share from 54 per cent to 66 per cent,” it added.
WTO report also pointed out that other commercial services were affected unevenly by the pandemic.
“Sectors requiring physical proximity, such as construction, and personal, cultural and recreational services, fell steeply. Financial services, in contrast, continued to grow,” it explained.
“Exports of computer services saw double-digit growth in many economies across various regions in 2020,” according to the WTO report.
“Rapid growth was recorded in most economies, in marked contrast with declines in other services sectors,” it added.
Bangladesh recorded 4.0 per cent growth in exports of computer services in the last year, the report mentioned.
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