Abstract
The South Asian regional economic integration process has garnered only limited global attention despite decades of efforts at national and regional levels to dismantle trade and investment barriers within the region.
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Notes
- 1.
See Dee (2012) for a discussion of economic reform processes in South Asia.
- 2.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) set-up in 1985 established an Inter-Governmental Group on Trade Liberalisation in 1991. Its proposal that SAARC adopt a preferential trade arrangement was accepted in 1993.
- 3.
In discussing South Asia, the rest of the paper relates primarily to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
- 4.
Sri Lanka’s ‘second wave of reforms in 1989–90 also followed a change of leadership amid a weak economic environment.
- 5.
This was not always the case. For example, Sri Lanka’s two main political parties, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) draw support primarily from the rural voter base, and urban and business sectors, respectively. In Bangladesh, the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) have similar voter preferences, as does India’s Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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Weerakoon, D. (2020). Political Economy of Policymaking: South Asia in Perspective. In: Raihan, S., De, P. (eds) Trade and Regional Integration in South Asia. South Asia Economic and Policy Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3932-9_5
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