Ghana is ranked 72nd in the world for her state of globalization by the DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI), a comprehensive analysis of the state of globalization around the world, which was released this week.

The GCI 2012 ranks 140 countries on their global connectedness levels based on international flows of trade, capital, information and people.

This was contained in a statement issued by the DHL and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Friday in Accra.

Mr Randy Buday, Managing Director of DHL Express Anglophone Africa, said even though the Sub-Saharan Africa region remained the world’s least connected, it averaged the largest connectedness increase from 2010 to 2011.

“Sub-Saharan Africa did perform poorly against Europe, Asia and the Americas but, from a positive perspective, the five countries with the largest increases in their scores – Mozambique, Togo, Ghana, Guinea and Zambia – are all from the region (Africa),” he said.

He expressed confidence that with the increased investment in Africa and a sustained commitment from governments, the region would continue to improve the scores year on year adding that Sub-Saharan Africa was definitely on the correct path when it came to the growth in global trade and connectivity.

Ghana achieved one of the world’s largest increases in its global connectedness from 2010 to 2011, increasing its rank 22 places from 94th to 72nd. The rise was driven by her growing depth on the trade pillar enhanced by the Jubilee oil and gas fields which began production in December 2010.

Following its large increase over the past year, Ghana now ranks fifth out of the 29 countries studied in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of overall global connectedness as well as on each of the four pillars.

Ghana’s large FDI inflows over the past three years are also noteworthy. Ghana ranks 17th world-wide on FDI inflows with the FDI contributing 38% of Ghana’s gross fixed capital formation.

Mr Buday explained that depth referred to how much of a given activity is international rather than domestic. Breadth complements depth by looking at how broadly the international component of a given type of activity is distributed across countries.

He said GCI also revealed that in 2011, intra-Africa trade continued to lag far behind its European and Asian counterparts saying; “If we want to improve this interconnectivity, we need to look at the ease of doing business across borders in the region and work towards regional trade agreements, customs improvements and border efficiencies, to name just a few.”

Ghana’s top trade export destinations are currently Togo (25%), South Africa (17%), France (9%), Italy (6%) and U.A.E. (5%).

Mr Buday said from a global perspective, the GCI 2012 indicated that today’s volatile and uncertain business environment bore the lasting impact of the financial crisis.

He said in this period of slow growth, it was important to remember the tremendous gains that globalisation had brought to the world and recognised it as an engine of economic progress.

Mr Buday said it was crucial that governments around the globe resisted protectionist measures that hindered cross-border interactions.