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There is a general consensus among policymakers, academicians and development practitioners that transport connectivity lies at the heart of deepening regional cooperation and integration in South Asia. It is being increasingly recognised now that development of production networks and value chains and promotion of trade and investment depend critically on the efficacy of transport linkages within and across countries. In absence of good transport connectivity, exporters lose competitiveness, domestic producers face cost-hike and delay and consumers' interests get undermined. Throughout all his active life, Dr. M. Rahmatullah had relentlessly championed the cause of multimodal connectivity in South Asia, and also seamless movement of goods across all of Asia. His dream was to build an integrated South Asia through corridors and gateways, which will be well connected with pan-Asian transport networks. His seminal contributions had put connectivity as central to economic prosperity and regional economic integration in the region. One recalls that member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had pledged to achieve the South Asia Economic Union (SAEU) by turn of the ongoing decade, where an efficient, secure and integrated transport network was identified to play a catalytic role. Trade was to play a crucial part in this scenario. Regrettably, South Asia is a case in point, where country-specific constraints impeded trade between countries. Consequently, goods often lose competitiveness at home before being sold overseas. One of the key tasks before South Asian countries is, therefore, to build gateways and multimodal corridors, which are the building blocks for creating an integrated spatial economic region in South Asia. In this backdrop, this collection of essays in honour of Dr. M. Rahmatullah deals with a diverse range of issues concerning trade and integration in South Asia, and assesses policy priorities, implementation imperatives and emerging challenges in view of this. Each chapter of the book tries to capture a vital segment of the cross-cutting issues associated with closer transport and economic linkages in South Asia and attempts to draw relevant policy implications in this connection. The volume reviews the progress made in terms of trade and connectivity in South Asia, and suggests ways towards further strengthening of regional integration in the region. We hope that the book will serve as a valuable reference source for policymakers, academics and practitioners working on issues of regional integration in South Asia.
This dissertation seeks to understand the pattern of trade and portfolio investment in East Asian economies and how trade integration can affect the level of bilateral asset holdings. On the trade side, the determinants of bilateral trade flow is examined at the product level, not the aggregate, so as to assess the impact of RTAs across product types as well as the nature of the home market effect and the role of similarity of demand structures. On the financial side, the dissertation synthesizes analyses of the composition of cross-border portfolio holdings in East Asian economies, focusing on the importance of capital market development as well as a linkage between goods and financial markets. The dissertation begins with a re-examination of the determinants of bilateral trade in differentiated, reference-priced, and homogeneous products over the period of 1983-2000. The results suggest that trade liberalization under the ASEAN PTA and AFTA frameworks played a significant role in promoting intra-regional trade in differentiated and reference-priced, but perhaps not homogeneous products. The weak evidence of trade creation in homogeneous products reflects the fact that the implementation of trade liberalization among ASEAN states has provided limited benefits to its members due to waivers of concessions. Despite the massive increase in intra-ASEAN trade, nevertheless, the findings reveal that the formation of RTAs in the region did not lead to trade diversion in any product category. The analysis of the composition of cross-border portfolio holdings in East Asian financial markets employs a panel dataset of the IMF's CPIS over the period of 2001-2009. One key finding from the analysis is that the volume of bilateral imports appeared to play a significant role in spurring cross-border portfolio holdings in East Asian financial markets. In particular, the dissertation shows empirically that the development of the capital markets in East Asia has become one of the key factors in attracting foreign portfolio investment from most regions of the world
Trade diversion and the creation of complicated and discriminatory tariff regimes with increased tariffs for non-member countries - the consequences of PTAs - are likely to undermine the multilateral trading system."--Jacket.
Within the broad frame of regional research in an international perspective, the contributions of this volume present new theoretical, methodological and empirical results as well as political strategies for the following topics: - ecomomic integration in the Baltic rim, - innovation and regional growth, - economic integration, trade and migration, - transport infrastructure and the regions. Most of the topics deal with the long-term integration process in Europe, with a particular focus on the North European and Baltic Sea integration.