Capital Market Integration in South Asia: Realizing the SAARC Opportunity discusses the potential Capital Market Products/Activities which can create closer inter-linkage of the South Asian capital markets and help local/global investors benefit from this economic opportunity. While some ideas may be implementable now; others have future promise as the regional markets further mature. The book demonstrates both retail and institutional investor interest in this combined high-growth region by offering scope for yield, diversification and risk mitigation, maximized upside from multiple growth markets, minimized downside through low-correlation constituents, and more. The book's core theme addresses the challenges towards deepening the awareness and acceptability of regional economies. Only when this happens will the asset flows increase into the regional market products, providing scale-up that will aid viability for these products. - Presents unconventional ideas for converting SAARC's unique opportunities into ideas for capital markets - Includes socioeconomic issues as a part of the discussion - Offers a unique perspective on how the region's economic opportunities can be translated into actual products - Includes numerous charts and figures on South Asia's economic state, its financial opportunities, and projected growth

This book analyses the current state and potential of economic and financial integration in South Asia, which has emerged as one of the most dynamic regions of the world. It looks at how regional convergences and cooperation would reinforce ties amongst the diverse economies of South Asia in the changing global economic landscape. Drawing on empirical research, the book looks at the degree of economic and financial integration in South Asia, which according to the World Bank includes the least integrated regions in the world, and explores the fundamental factors that drive integration amongst these countries. It offers important insights into the financial landscape of the region, as well as the dynamics of the interlinkages in the banking system, the stock markets, and the debt markets. The book examines the role of bilateral trade in augmenting regional economic ties, the opportunities for growth these will foster, and the major challenges and roadblocks for the leaders of the region. It also provides an overview of China’s role in South Asia’s financial integration and the interdependence of these economies for economic opportunities, macroeconomic and financial stability, jobs, sustainable growth, and inclusive development. Detailed and insightful, this book will be of great interest to investors and regional policymakers. It will also be of interest to researchers and students of economics, public and foreign policy, finance, international relations, and South Asia studies.

South Asian leaders have made it a priority to tackle key regional issues such as poverty, environment degradation, trade and investment barriers and food insecurity, among others.

The Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) conference series has been at the forefront of analysing challenges facing the economies of East Asia and the Pacific since its first meeting in Tokyo in January 1968. The 38th PAFTAD conference met at a key time to consider international economic integration. Earlier in the year, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union and the United States elected Donald Trump as their next president on the back of an inward-looking ‘America First’ promise. Brexit and President Trump represent a growing, and worrying, trend towards protectionism in the North Atlantic countries that have led the process of globalisation since the end of the Second World War. The chapters in the volume describe the state of play in Asian economic integration but, more importantly, look forward to the region’s future, and the role it might play in defending the global system that has underwritten its historic rise. Asia has the potential to stand as a bulwark against the dual threats of North Atlantic protectionism and slowing trade growth, but collective leadership will be needed regionally and difficult domestic reforms will be required in each country.

The fiscal crisis in Europe continues to cast a shadow on the global economic outlook, and the securities issued by the United States and European nations are losing their status as traditional safe assets and reserve value. As a result, investors and governments are looking to diversify their investment portfolio with emerging markets, particularly Asian bonds. Such renewed interest has led to excessive capital inflows, making the region increasingly vulnerable to external shocks. However, on the other hand, it leads to abundant liquidity in the capital markets, which reduces financing costs and expands investment opportunities. This book analyses this dilemma and proposes that development of local bond markets and achieving greater market depth and interconnectedness is the best bet to prevent the reoccurrence of a currency crisis like 1997. It thus, assesses the progress achieved thus far in capital market integration in Asia, and compares it with its global peers. The study also assesses the degree to which volatility in equity and bond market returns, driven by financial turmoil originating at both the regional and global levels, spills over into emerging Asia domestic equity and bond markets. The results of this analysis indicate that such spill-over significantly impacts both domestic equity and bond markets in the region. This finding suggests that on-going regional capital market integration initiatives should take into account the risk of contagion that regional financial integration presents, and introduce measures for mitigating such risk as a means of ensuring financial stability in the region.

Given the rapid emergence of regional economic arrangements in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, it is useful to understand clearly what regionalism implies for the region, as well as to take stock as to the far-reaching and complicated effects of formal economic cooperation and integration. This book allows the reader to better understand the relevant international policies of the Southeast Asian economies, and to appreciate the potential lessons for other developing regions. It also focuses on the regionalism trend with an explicit application to ASEAN, as well as the implications of regionalism in the developed countries.The goal of this book is to survey the economics and political economy of regionalism in the ASEAN context from a variety of perspectives and using various techniques, from standard economic analysis of preferential trading arrangements to the political economy analysis of institutions. Its approach is comprehensive in that it includes ASEAN economic integration in the areas of trade, foreign direct investment, and finance. Presentation of the material is designed to be accessible to non-technical audiences without sacrificing the rigor expected by economists and other experts.

The increased mobility and volume of international capital flows is a striking trend in international finance. While countries worldwide have engaged in financial deregulation, nowhere is this pattern more pronounced than in East Asia, where it has affected in unanticipated ways the behavior of exchange rates, interest rates, and capital flows. In these thirteen essays, American and Asian scholars analyze the effects of financial deregulation and integration on East Asian markets. Topics covered include the roles of the United States and Japan in trading with Asian countries, macroeconomic policy implications of export-led growth in Korea and Taiwan, the effects of foreign direct investment in China, and the impact of financial liberalization in Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Demonstrating the complexity of financial deregulation and the challenges it poses for policy makers, this volume provides an excellent picture of the overall status of East Asian financial markets for scholars in international finance and Asian economic development.

During the 1990s, the governments of South Asian countries acted as ‘facilitators’ to attract FDI. As a result, the inflow of FDI increased. However, to become an attractive FDI destination as China, Singapore, or Brazil, South Asia has to improve the local conditions of doing business. This book, based on research that blends theory, empirical evidence, and policy, asks and attempts to answer a few core questions relevant to FDI policy in South Asian countries: Which major reforms have succeeded? What are the factors that influence FDI inflows? What has been the impact of FDI on macroeconomic performance? Which policy priorities/reforms needed to boost FDI are pending? These questions and answers should interest policy makers, academics, and all those interested in FDI in the South Asian region and in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

This report analyzes how closer regional connectivity and economic integration between South Asia and Southeast Asia can benefit both regions, with a focus on the role played by infrastructure and public policies in facilitating this process. It examines major developments in South Asian–Southeast Asian trade and investment, economic cooperation, the role of economic corridors, and regional cooperation initiatives. In particular, it identifies significant opportunities for strengthening these integration efforts as a result of the recent opening up of Myanmar in political, economic, and financial terms. This is particularly the case for land-based transportation—highways and railroads—and energy trading. The report’s focus is on connectivity in a broad sense, covering both hardware and software, including investment in infrastructure, energy trading, trade facilitation, investment financing, and support for national and regional policies.

This book addresses issues affecting growth and employment in South Asia. It looks at the policies and institutions that could propel the region towards higher growth.