BD exports to India to cross $1.0b | South Asia | South Asian News Agency
Dhaka(SANA)For the first time in history, Bangladeshs exports to India will cross the $1 billion mark in a 12-month period next July, a top Indian official has said at a conference jointly held by Indian Council of World Affairs and Association of Asia Scholars.
Indias National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said Friday India last year trimmed its sensitive list under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement in a dramatic move benefiting Least Developed Countries in its neighbourhood.
As a result, I am told that Bangladeshs exports to India will cross the $ 1 billion mark in a twelve-month period in July for the first time in history, he said, delivering the keynote address in the inaugural session of the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi.
Indian Council of World Affairs and Association of Asia Scholars are jointly holding the conference.
Menon said that South Asia had emerged as one of the fastest growing sub-regions in the world with an average rate of growth of eight per cent sustained over the past five years.
Intra-regional trade within South Asia has begun to grow and has doubled over the past five years. We are therefore at a point where it is increasingly evident to all the countries in South Asia that there are substantial costs to not moving forward by lowering tariffs, minimising sensitive lists, and tackling non-tariff barriers. Each government has taken significant actions in the recent past, he added.
Menon, who earlier served as foreign secretary of India, said the perception of South Asia as the least integrated region in terms of trade ignored the wide variation in the experiences of the member states.
The fact is that intra-regional trade as a proportion of total trade varies widely for the countries in South Asia. For Nepal it is as high as 60.5 per cent, for Sri Lanka 18.9 per cent, for Pakistan 6.6 per cent and for India only 2.7 per cent. But this variation also tells us how great the potential is, and why intra-regional trade is growing faster than South Asias trade with the rest of the world, he said.
He also pointed out that the official figures certainly underestimated the real magnitude of trade taking place between S Asian countries, whether clandestinely or through third countries.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the real figure for India-Pakistan trade could be almost three times greater than the official figures of almost $ 3 billion. It is an open secret that most India-Bangladesh trade is not reflected in the official figures, he observed.
The national security advisor has the dubious distinction of a relatively high level of informal trade flows unrecorded and un-reflected in official trade statistics. This suggests that natural complementarities do exist between South Asian economies and have already been identified and acted upon, he added.
He also noted improvement in the security situation in important parts of South Asia.
The elimination of the LTTEs armed forces in Sri Lanka, Bangladeshs successful actions against terrorists and extremist elements in the last three years, and Nepals steady progress in its double transition to multi-party democracy and mainstreaming the Maoists are some practical examples, he added.
Dhaka(SANA)For the first time in history, Bangladeshs exports to India will cross the $1 billion mark in a 12-month period next July, a top Indian official has said at a conference jointly held by Indian Council of World Affairs and Association of Asia Scholars.
Indias National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said Friday India last year trimmed its sensitive list under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement in a dramatic move benefiting Least Developed Countries in its neighbourhood.
As a result, I am told that Bangladeshs exports to India will cross the $ 1 billion mark in a twelve-month period in July for the first time in history, he said, delivering the keynote address in the inaugural session of the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi.
Indian Council of World Affairs and Association of Asia Scholars are jointly holding the conference.
Menon said that South Asia had emerged as one of the fastest growing sub-regions in the world with an average rate of growth of eight per cent sustained over the past five years.
Intra-regional trade within South Asia has begun to grow and has doubled over the past five years. We are therefore at a point where it is increasingly evident to all the countries in South Asia that there are substantial costs to not moving forward by lowering tariffs, minimising sensitive lists, and tackling non-tariff barriers. Each government has taken significant actions in the recent past, he added.
Menon, who earlier served as foreign secretary of India, said the perception of South Asia as the least integrated region in terms of trade ignored the wide variation in the experiences of the member states.
The fact is that intra-regional trade as a proportion of total trade varies widely for the countries in South Asia. For Nepal it is as high as 60.5 per cent, for Sri Lanka 18.9 per cent, for Pakistan 6.6 per cent and for India only 2.7 per cent. But this variation also tells us how great the potential is, and why intra-regional trade is growing faster than South Asias trade with the rest of the world, he said.
He also pointed out that the official figures certainly underestimated the real magnitude of trade taking place between S Asian countries, whether clandestinely or through third countries.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the real figure for India-Pakistan trade could be almost three times greater than the official figures of almost $ 3 billion. It is an open secret that most India-Bangladesh trade is not reflected in the official figures, he observed.
The national security advisor has the dubious distinction of a relatively high level of informal trade flows unrecorded and un-reflected in official trade statistics. This suggests that natural complementarities do exist between South Asian economies and have already been identified and acted upon, he added.
He also noted improvement in the security situation in important parts of South Asia.
The elimination of the LTTEs armed forces in Sri Lanka, Bangladeshs successful actions against terrorists and extremist elements in the last three years, and Nepals steady progress in its double transition to multi-party democracy and mainstreaming the Maoists are some practical examples, he added.
