Regional growth-driven economy

The importance attached to regional growth was clear and candid in the recently-held international conference in Dhaka on 'Global Economic Recovery: Asian Perspective', organised by the International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (ICCB). Speakers and delegates from different countries deliberated at length on the subject and, while suggesting ways and means to tide over the global economic downturn, they stressed the need for region-driven growth. While the issue of regional cooperation has been featuring with increasing impetus for sometime, it has been further emphasised and articulated in the deliberations of the conference. Speakers were unanimously at one on the issue that in the days ahead, economies in the Asian region would be increasingly dependent on regional collaboration, or in other words, strength of the Asian economies would be largely determined by utilisation of the regional potential. The ICCB's president summarised the matter in a more precise manner saying that Asian growth will be driven by regional growth, political cooperation among the states of the region and China-India relations.
Given that India-China relations are growing faster than ever with some concrete action plans in infrastructure, connectivity and financial sectors, the countries in the entire region are likely to be the beneficiaries from the tie-up of these two economies. However, it is not necessarily the bilateral relations between the two big neighbours that only can trigger benefits for the rest of the region but a sustained synergy in various fields should be considered potentially exploitable for both individual and collective well-being of the countries in the region.
From Bangladesh's perspective, the issues of regional cooperation and collaboration have so long remained sector-specific --and that too confined to its immediate neighbours. But in reality, the relations could barely transcend bilateral limits. Although regional trade agreements have been in place since a decade, the levels of cooperation hardly went beyond 'cautious' across-the-table negotiations. Now things are assuming a better look as newer issues are emerging with more countries getting involved. The energy cooperation is a pertinent case in point. Connectivity and transit, so long confined to the immediate neighbours, are expected to open up further. Few other issues, capable of transforming the economies of countries like that of Bangladesh are investment, sharing of common manufacturing base, relocation of industries to suitable places within the region and so on.
Stray moves are already there in all such areas. High-level business delegates are exploring opportunities for decisive actions. And since this region is strategically well-placed with some of the rarest endowments such as low-cost labour, abundance of workforce ready to be engaged, it will be in the interest of collective benefit that things have to be in place. The early it is the better.  Bangladesh has reasons to count on the prospects likely to come its way. In most of the potential areas, it has its own unique advantage. Although infrastructure is one of the hindrances, some recent moves suggest that the government is keen not to let the opportunities go off its grip.