In Asia Pacific, which is his area of expertise, Millar says regulations are generally becoming more stringent, particularly concerning the environment and labor. "As these economies develop, they begin bringing in more of the types of regulations common in the developed world," he says. "From a business perspective this tends to be good practice, but in many cases it adds costs, so what used to be low-cost country sourcing becomes less low-cost."
In addition to regulatory issues, other top challenges in Asia are infrastructure and talent, he says. China and Vietnam have done a lot of work on their infrastructure and India is gradually improving its transportation networks, says Millar. "Talent is the thing that concerns me most," he says. "There simply are not enough skilled, experienced logisticians and supply chain professionals in the Asian regions to deal with the rapid expansion." Additionally, not enough young people are choosing logistics and the supply chain as a career, he says. "As an industry, we need to collectively evangelize about logistics and the supply chain so youngsters can understand the career options available to them before they have to make that choice. Supply chain and logistics are new career paths for this part of the world," says Millar. "Areas like finance, retail, banking and trading are more obvious career choices. That's why we need to evangelize."
Keywords: international trade, supply chain management, 3PL, third party logistics, logistics management, logistics & supply chain, government regulation of logistics activities
