ADB for dialogues among S Asian countries for regional cooperation

Country Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Kazuhiko Higuchi stressed Thursday the importance of holding continuous dialogues among the South Asian countries to reap equal benefits of regional cooperation.
Speaking as the chief guest at a luncheon meeting, he said the countries of the region can discuss the barriers, which have been hampering trade and investment in the area, and remove those for fostering economic growth.
"And the ADB can create such a forum for dialogue as benefits of regional cooperation should be shared equally for equal economic development," he said, adding that such meetings will also help improve the level of trust among the countries in the subcontinent.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) organised the luncheon meeting for the month of June titled 'Building Infrastructure through Regional Integration and Cooperation: Role of ADB' at a city hotel where ADB lead economist Mohammad Zahid Hossain was also present.
The ADB Country Director in a PowerPoint presentation said the ADB has been involved in regional cooperation and integration activities and has played an active role in the evolution of regional and sub-regional initiatives like South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Programme, set up in 2001.
He said the programme aims at bringing together Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka in a project-based partnership to promote regional prosperity by improving cross-border connectivity, boosting trade among member-countries, and strengthening regional economic cooperation.
Mr. Higuchi said since 2001, the ADB has been financing nine SASEC projects involving US$ 816.70 million in many areas like strengthening transport, ICT connectivity, cross-boarder energy trade, removal of non-physical barriers to trade and tourism development.
 "Four more projects worth US$ 2.0 billion will be initiated soon. And these projects are aimed at building infrastructures for regional cooperation," he added.
AmCham president Aftab ul Islam said despite having immense potential, the region cannot achieve the expected level of economic development because of mistrust among the South Asian states.
 "There should be some sorts of networking, which hasn't been done by the political leaders of the region because of the mistrust and it has really been killing the region. Unless we bring trust, we cannot enjoy the benefits the regional cooperation has," he said.
He, however, suggested for frequent visits of business people, students and other communities among the countries to regain the trust.
He said there is a huge potential of hydroelectricity in Nepal and Bhutan, which can remove the energy scarcity from the region.
 "The potential cannot be explored and utilised because of shortage of the required resources. So, here is the area where regional cooperation can really work," he added.
He also sought due attention of policy-makers of all the countries and their development partners to invest in both hard and soft infrastructure development for easing regional cooperation as did by other bodies like the EU (European Union) and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).