This Report Gives An Overview Of The Global Economic Trends, Of The World Trading And Financial System And Of The Emerging Economic Scenario In Soth Asia. The Implications Of The Global Slowing Down For South Asia And The Challenges Of Emerging World Trading System Under Wto Are Analysed. It Stresses Strategic Importance Of Regional Economic Cooperation In South Asia As An Investment For Promoting Development And Competitive Strength Of The South Asian Region.

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 South Asia Development And Cooperation Report 2004 (Sadcr 2004) Arguest That The Region Can Face These Challenges Much More Effectively As A Group Rather Than Individually. The Regional Economic Integration Can, By Exploiting The Synergies, Expand The Economic Opportunities Available And Strengthen The Growth Prospects. The Recent Experiences With Economic Integration, In The Region, Suggest That It Leads To Expansion Of Trade And Development In A Balanced And Sustainable Manner. In The Light Of These Experiences And Against The Backdrop Of Mushrooming Regional Trading Blocs In Different Parts Of The World, The Report Finds A Compelling Case For The Region Expeditiously Effecting Its Transition Into An Economic And Monetary Union By Implementing Safta, Forming A Saarc Customs Union And Introducing A South Asian Parallel Currency, As An Intermediate Step To A Single Currency.

The South Asian economies constitute the largest and most densely populated region of the world. With an estimated 1.4 billion plus people, this is a larger market area than China. This volume addresses South Asia's opening up and attempts to integrate into the global economy. The volume is unique among existing offerings on South Asia in that it covers the dynamics of structural adjustments due to globalisation, focusing on the development and welfare aspects of the region. The contributions, by a broad range of international experts from the disciplines of banking and finance, economics, management and political science, are informed by three central themes. The three themes are industry reforms and market adjustment; economic performance and the effects on globalisation on specific industries; and economic development, poverty and welfare issues. The volume adopts a broad interdisciplinary approach to these issues and will appeal to readers from across the business disciplines.

Given the recent emergence of China and India as economic powers, trade and economic engagement within the Asia Pacific region has become a significant area of interest to many policy-makers, academics and the general public. As international trade has been increasing among the countries in the region, many have decided to explore possibilities to introduce free trade through negotiating Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) due to its many advantages. This book comprehensively covers the existing economic cooperation arrangements in the region as well as those that are at various stages of study and negotiations.

At the start of each decade the World Development Report focuses on poverty reduction. The World Development Report, now in its twenty-third edition, proposes an empowerment-security-opportunity framework of action to reduce poverty in the first decades of the twenty-first century. It views poverty as a multidimensional phenonmenon arising out of complex interactions between assets, markets, and institutions. This Report shows how the experience of poverty reduction in the last fifteen years has been remarkably diverse and how this experience has provided useful lessons as well as warnings against simplistic universal policies and interventions. It shows how current global trends present extraordinary opportunities for poverty reduction but also cause extraordinary risks, including growing inequality, marginalization, and social explosions. The World Development Report 2000/2001 explores the challenge of managing these risks in order to make the most of the opportunities for poverty reduction.

Economic Integration in South Asia: Issues and Pathways is one of the volumes of the series titled, Imagine a New South Asia, presented by ActionAid International Asia. This volume envisions a new South Asia, free from human deprivation and poverty, where countries will become successful, proud and inclusive societies. This book demonstrates how South Asian countries can learn from the best practices in the region as well as from their failures, and also by trying to emulate the successful strategies of introducing egalitarian education and health systems of East Asia, China and Southeast Asian countries. Rich in analysis and research, this volume seeks an alternative people-centred perspective, and takes into account all those voices that have so long been unheard in policy-making processes through reviews of case studies. Not only will the findings of this volume be useful in conducting campaigns for appropriate policy and mindset changes, but these will also, eventually, make the emergence of a highly integrated South Asia truly possible.

The member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation have set as a target the achievement of an economic union by 2020. Reaching this goal will require greater levels of monetary cooperation. How should this be achieved? Data from South Asia suggest that member states have minor trade linkages and face asymmetrical patterns of shocks. This paper concludes that, absent a clear road map for monetary cooperation, the present process must be structured so as to be harmonized with the level of regional economic integration.

'National Strategies for Regional Integration: South and East Asian Case Studies' examines how each country's integration with its neighbours and more distant regional economies might be improved. The country cases illustrate the diversity of Asian development experience and offer lessons for other countries and regions interested in developing national strategies to foster regional integration.