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.

This book considers the leadership of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the interaction with civil society in the process of South Asian regional cooperation and integration, and discusses how the emerging urgency in the provision of regional public goods provides an excellent opportunity to add to the successes in South Asian regional integration.

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.

Regional Integration in South Asia: Trends, Challenges and Prospects presents an objective assessment of trade and economic co-operation among South Asian nations and highlights policy issues to foster regional integration. The analyses presented in this volume go beyond the usual discussions on trade-in-goods to provide insightful perspectives on potential new areas of co-operation, emerging challenges, and country-specific views on regional and bilateral trade co-operation issues. Written by influential analysts and researchers, the volume’s 24 chapters include perspectives from Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and examinations of new areas of co-operation such as investment, regional supply chains, energy and cross-border transport networks.

The Regional Economic Integration: A comparative study of Central Asian and South Asian Regions. This book has been acknowledged as an exhaustive research on Economic Integration between Central Asia and South Asian as well as within the regions. This book has given an idea that both the regions are complementary to each other having a lot of potential in all growing sectors. To harness this potential efficiently both the regions should cooperate with each other. Economic benefits might help in diluting some political problems exiting within the regions. War devastating countries by Economic Integration could yield maximum benefits in the European Union then why not these regions could do so. History is witnessed that these regions enjoy same social and culturalties while engaging in trade activities. Author has made extensive efforts to highlight the benefits of economic integration for development and prosperity of both the regions.

This book highlights various cutting-edge topics and approaches to cooperation and regional integration in South Asia. Contributions from both South Asian and EU scholars carry the distinctive flavour of differing perspectives, in order to identify possible driving factors for regional cooperation. The book is divided into four parts: Peace and Stability focuses on how to combat terrorism and ideologies of hate, looks at governance in the context of cultural diversity, and examines the role of education in achieving traditional and human security; Economic Cooperation deals with potential EU-India trade relations as well as the issue of how to transform the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) into an effective and coherent economic space; Efficient Use of Resources analyses how the region can achieve more development; EU-South Asia relations elaborates on potential areas of cooperation between the two regions.

Regional integration seems to be thriving everywhere, as the examples of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the North Atlantic Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and the Southern Common Market will illustrate. More ambitious schemes, such as Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and those for Western hemispheric integration are also underway. How do these trends for integration relate to national development strategies? The contributors to this volume provide new insights into these developments as well as assessing the prospects for further integration.

South Asia today is among the most unstable regions in the world, riddled by both intra- and inter-state conflict. This book presents a comprehensive technical analysis of the trade–conflict relationship within the region, and explores how South Asia demonstrates underperformance of its potential for economic integration. Using the gravity model framework, the book highlights quantitative estimates of the cost of conflict in terms of loss of trade for South Asia. Other variables representative of political and economic regimes are also included to make the model comprehensive, and the book goes on to discuss how the analysis reveals the overriding significance of the India–Pakistan relationship in the regional landscape. It looks at how the results of the econometric exercise reveal the extent to which a common border, when disputed, becomes a barrier rather than a facilitator to trade and, additionally, the extent to which long standing and persistent conflict can debilitate trade relationships. The book is a useful contribution for students and scholars of South Asian studies and international political economy, and assists in formulating policy to correct the anti-home bias that is evident in trade patterns of the South Asian economies.

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.

Gathering contributions from leading academics and international trade experts from South Asia, this book is dedicated to the late Dr. Saman Kelegma, whose untimely death in June 2017 left a huge void in the field of regional economic cooperation. Keeping in mind his enduring legacy regarding regional cooperation in South Asia, it covers issues related to the challenges of deeper regional integration in South Asia and proposes strategies to address these challenges. It also offers an up-to-date, rigorous academic analysis of various issues related to low intra-regional trade in South Asia; prevalence of tariff barriers; incidence of a range of non-tariff measures; challenges of weak-trade-related infrastructure and the need for trade facilitation; the political economics of regional integration, highlighting how bilateral political relations affect the integration process; low level of intra-regional investment; South Asia’s pattern of integration with the global and regional value chains; pattern and dominance of informal trade; and alternative regional integration initiatives in South Asia, such as the bilateral, regional, and sub-regional trade agreements within and countries outside this region. Intended primarily for researchers and students of international trade, and policymakers from South Asia and beyond, the book is also a valuable supplementary reference resource for researchers and students. Furthermore, the pragmatic analysis of the policy options presented offers guidance for policymakers in South Asia wanting to implement effective policies and strategies for deeper regional integration.