The South Asian region has much to learn from the ASEAN experience in integrating investment, trade and movement of labour which includes a skilled workforce

In conclusion, it may be said that while South Asia, Central and  West Asia and Pacific Asia showed improvement in sustainability indicators for environment and energy in 2020, they did not do so well in social and governance indicators.

There has been discussion of alternate supply chains being created in India, Indonesia and Vietnam but supply chain issues originating from China are not going to go away in a hurry.

South Asia has no strong trade ties within the region, unlike many parts of Asia, and more particularly the developed parts of Asia, namely Southeast Asia and East Asia. South Asia, therefore, has to formulate its own macroeconomic policies to sustain growth keeping in mind global economic trends.

The data for South Asia shows that Maldives is the most globally integrated country in the region followed by  Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan in terms of the average percentage of exports that formed part of the global value chain during the period 2019-2021.

Between 2008 and 2021, the sectoral economic transition witnessed in most countries in South Asia - and in other parts of Asia - has  reduced the sectoral share of GDP in agriculture  and also the  employment burden on agriculture  in most countries.  This trend, however, changed in the wake of Covid -19  when the share of agriculture in GDP in…

The situation however has been somewhat different in certain countries of South Asia which have raised resources through external borrowings despite having current account deficits - Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.  Caution needs to be exercised by them in resorting to such borrowings.

The policy dilemmas which the economies of South Asia face call for collective thinking, although each country may have to pursue its own strategy, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor 

Some major countries of South Asia have recently had Article IV consultations with the IMF since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor

Carbon finance is expected to play a critical role in leveraging private sector finance for flourishing regional power trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor