About the Project
A much repeated statement about South Asia is that it is one of the least integrated and connected regions of the world. Intra-regional trade hovers around five percent of the total trade of South Asian countries. This lack of connectivity and integration has long been accepted as one of the biggest contributors to the sub-optimal utilization of the region’s economic potential and hence gains for all the countries.
However, of late, there have been many positive developments, including the emergence of BBIN sub-regional grouping, increasing political and strategic capital on the BIMSTEC grouping and a high point in terms of India-Bangladesh relationships with frequent and very fruitful visits by the heads of the states in receptive countries shoring up much hope on cooperation riding on high political will at the top level.
Also, recent and ongoing initiatives in the region and in the immediate neighborhood, particularly those with strategic and geo-political implications, have prompted action by countries of the region and also those countries that are invested in a more connected South Asia. This includes the U.S. activities to increase regional economic connectivity, Japan’s engagement with Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (Big B) initiative, the recently launched Asia-Africa Growth Corridor by Japan and India, and so on. The time is ripe for focused interventions to leverage this enabling climate to push for greater connectivity in the South Asia sub-region.
CUTS International and its partner organizations, The East-West Center (EWC), Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) , have been engaged concerning these paradigm shifts and developments through evidence based policy advocacy on pertinent issues and by bringing key players together to help find solutions to common problems based on shared concerns and aspirations.
Over the last couple of years the consortium partners have been engaging with the trade, connectivity, political economy and investment space at various levels in the sub-region to push for greater cooperation, policy coherence and coming together of countries in the sub-region to find collective solutions to shared issues. With this backdrop, the consortium wishes to organize this South Asia Connectivity Conference to provide a further push to the agenda of regional cooperation and connectivity that they have been already pursuing.
Project Coverage: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka
Project Themes:
1) Economic cooperation and connectivity
2) Regional investment
3) Security cooperation and connectivity
Project goal: to bring together key interlocutors to discuss challenges and solutions to economic, investment, and security issues relevant to South Asia and the United States.
Project objective:
1) Create a multi-discipline, multi-country platform for policy discussions and exchange among key stakeholders (public and private) on South Asia connectivity, which will culminate with a two-day conference that will come out with concrete policy recommendations, suggestions and directions. This will include government officials, security officials, academics, scientists, research scholars and students of international relations, political science, business and security studies from regional universities, think-tank leaders, business associations, and representatives from the diplomatic corps from South Asia, United States, and other countries invested in promoting greater connectivity in South Asia.
2) Connect policy-makers, the private sector, trade and investment promotion bodies including business associations, international experts, think tanks, media and other relevant stakeholders of the South Asia region, the United States of America and countries such as Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea, that are invested in greater connectivity in South Asia towards leveraging existing and possible partnerships and collaborations to promote greater connectivity and advance new policy.
Methodology
1) Country scoping visits: Scoping visits will be undertaken to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to connect and initiate discussions with key experts, government officials, private sector and also the US Missions in respective countries to share initial ideas on the conference and its sessions to understand and create ownership around the idea. These visits will also be used to solicit ideas for potential contributors for the compilation of articles that will be released prior to the conference.
2) Publication of compilation of articles: A compilation of eighteen (18) articles will be contributed by experts from South Asia (and beyond) on the focus themes of economic cooperation and connectivity, regional investment, and security cooperation and connectivity.
3) Conference in New Delhi: This will bring together government officials, security officials, academics, scientists, research scholars and students of international relations, political science, business and security studies from regional universities, think-tank leaders, business associations, donor agencies and representatives from the diplomatic corps from South Asia, United States, and countries such as Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea invested in promoting greater connectivity in South Asia, to connect and deliberate on issues, challenges, opportunities and identify solutions to enhance connectivity in South Asia.
This will be a two-day event focusing on the three themes of economic cooperation and connectivity, regional investment, and security cooperation and connectivity. Each theme will have parallel session running during the two days with expected three tracks under each theme on each day. The specific topics and issues will evolve through consultations and discussions but are expected to include subjects like multimodal physical connectivity with particular emphasis on leveraging ongoing and planned connectivity infrastructure in the region and beyond, institutional and regulatory connectivity, trade facilitation measures to lower non-tariff barriers with particular emphasis on regional value chains on agricultural commodities, people-to-people connectivity, strategic cooperation on security, stability and peace given the geo-political context and shared concerns, and so on.
Goals and Objectives
Project goal: to bring together key interlocutors to discuss challenges and solutions to economic, investment, and security issues relevant to South Asia and the United States.
Project objective:
1) Create a multi-discipline, multi-country platform for policy discussions and exchange among key stakeholders (public and private) on South Asia connectivity, which will culminate with a two-day conference that will come out with concrete policy recommendations, suggestions and directions. This will include government officials, security officials, academics, scientists, research scholars and students of international relations, political science, business and security studies from regional universities, think-tank leaders, business associations, and representatives from the diplomatic corps from South Asia, United States, and other countries invested in promoting greater connectivity in South Asia.
2) Connect policy-makers, the private sector, trade and investment promotion bodies including business associations, international experts, think tanks, media and other relevant stakeholders of the South Asia region, the United States of America and countries such as Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea, that are invested in greater connectivity in South Asia towards leveraging existing and possible partnerships and collaborations to promote greater connectivity and advance new policy.