Improving physical connectivity between South and Southeast Asia has long been recognized as a key element in promoting greater trade and investment linkages within the region. As an island economy, Sri Lanka’s regional connectivity has been mainly through its main sea port in Colombo, a...

South and Southeast Asian economic integration via increased trade flows has been increasing significantly over the past 2 decades, but the level of trade continues to be relatively low. This underperformance has been due to both policy-related variables—relatively high tariff and...

This paper discusses trade facilitation in the context of enhancing trading links between South and Southeast Asia, in a manner understandable to the non-specialist. Presently, these two Asian regions tend to trade preferentially with distant markets. One of the reasons cited for the limited...

Economic integration is being inhibited by the poor state of transport connectivity between Bangladesh, and South Asia and Southeast Asia. This study reviews connectivity initiatives of Bangladesh and the two neighboring regions and proposes ways to deepen regional and interregional...

South Asia and Southeast Asia have been connected for many centuries, with the degree of connectivity varying over time. This paper explores strengthening connectivity between the two subregions by identifying the missing links in transport connectivity. The paper is specifically concerned with...

South and Southeast Asian economic integration via increased trade flows has been increasing significantly over the past 2 decades, but the level of trade continues to be relatively low. This underperformance has been due to both policy-related variables—relatively high tariff and...

Economic integration is being inhibited by the poor state of transport connectivity between Bangladesh, and South Asia and Southeast Asia. This study reviews connectivity initiatives of Bangladesh and the two neighboring regions and proposes ways to deepen regional and interregional...

The study suggests an approach to reduce India’s sensitive list under SAFTA. The concept of Revealed Comparative Advantage has been used to pair the RCAs for products on India’s sensitive list with the corresponding RCAs of the SAARC countries. Four categories of items are...

The study suggests an approach to reduce India’s sensitive list under SAFTA. The concept of Revealed Comparative Advantage has been used to pair the RCAs for products on India’s sensitive list with the corresponding RCAs of the SAARC countries. Four categories of items are...

Services have been a key driver of overall economic growth in South Asia since the 1990s. This paper examines how the growth of services output, trade and investment have affected service sector employment in South Asia and the extent to which countries in this region are proactively undertaking...