Do SAARC and BIMSTEC Lead the World?—Regional Collaboration in South Asia

Abstract

South Asia is among the world’s least economically integrated regions, despite the advantages of proximity, structural and cultural familiarities, and shared developmental priorities. Constrained by disagreements stemming from past history, national pride, territorial disputes, ethnic and religious disturbances, mutual mistrust and cross-border migration issues, the region has been unable to leverage the benefits of regional cooperation to bolster its common future interest. Deeper regional integration could, however, turn the sub-region into an important land bridge and trade hub between Europe, Central Asia and South-East Asia. The inception of multiple institutional frameworks for advancing regional cooperation, such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) initiative and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) indicates consensus on the importance of enhanced South Asian cooperation, but these organisations have only had limited success in overcoming hurdles to regional collaboration. With a vision to gradually transition towards a South Asian Economic Union characterised by a Common Market and Customs and an Economic and Monetary Union, SAARC facilitated the inception of a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), which was operationalized in 2006. After more than a decade since its initiation and despite multiple bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), if the progress is satisfactory or not. This analysis was made in this paper that if this region of South Asia grows faster it can play a very significant role in the global scenario.