PortEconomics member Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue of the Dept. of Global Studies and Geography at Hofstra Univeristy has been tasked by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to provide regular contributions to their freight transport and logistics blog. The Transportation Division at the IDB’s Infrastructure and Environment Sector in collaboration with the Knowledge and Learning Sector and the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL) of the Trade and Integration Department has fostered the setup of a Freight Transport and Logistics Regional Observatory.
The Regional Observatory is intended to reduce the existing information gap in the sector. Thus, it works to concentrate strategic information about freight transport and logistics, private investment in logistics infrastructure, and competitiveness and productive innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean. As part of its activities, the Regional Observatory has set up a website to promote its initiatives and provide data and analysis on freight transport to its users. The website will include a blog-like section, in which various experts will post logistics-related articles. Along with two other experts in the field, Dr. Rodrigue will every two weeks or so provide a short article dealing with a freight transport issue in Latin America and the Caribbean based on his research and field work in the region.
His first piece about transshipment in the Caribbean has already been published and can be accessed from Inter-American Development Bank Freight Transport & Logistics Regional Observatory.