"South asian economy in 2060" by Dr. Ishrat Husain
 

Faculty / School

Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)

Was this content written or created while at IBA?

Yes

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2013

Author Affiliation

  • Dr. Ishrat Husain is Dean and Director of the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Book or Conference Proceedings Title

South asia 2060 : envisioning regional futures

ISBN/ISSN

9789380601908

Editor(s)

Adil Najam & Moeed Yusuf [Editors]

First Page

123

Last Page

131

Publisher

Anthem Press

Place of Publication

Delhi

Keywords

South Asia,Economy,2060,Future prospects

Abstract / Description

South Asian economies have grown rapidly during the last two decades recording an average growth rate of 6 percent annually. Incidence of poverty has been reduced although the absolute number of poor has increased in the last two years because of the external shocks and internal turbulence in some countries. The private sector has been the principal driver of the economic turnaround as increased competition resulted in improved efficiency with productivity growth accounting for half of overall growth. Structural reforms in trade, taxation, investment and foreign exchange regimes over more than a decade have contributed to this growth in productivity. Integration in the global economy through trade, investment, technology transfer and movement of labor picked up speed since 1991 and has begun to pay dividends. The scope for further gains remains vast as both trade/gross domestic product (GDP) and foreign direct investment (FDI)/ GDP ratios are low. Despite these favorable outcomes and a resilience to face external shocks, the region has the highest number of poor in the world, human development indicators place it in the lowest category, income and regional inequalities are on the rise and social cohesion is still an elusive goal. This paper argues that the growth and poverty reduction record could have been better if the potential of regional economic cooperation had been exploited, bilateral relations among neighboring countries were warmer and hostilities and trust deficits between countries was absent. An expanded market with economies of scale in production, better connectivity through infrastructure, trade facilitation and communications and an ease of movement for people and ideas offered enormous opportunities that were missed over a long period of six decades.

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