Dr. Amit Kapoor shared his views at the Regional Connectivity Conference: South Asia in the Ind0-Pacific Context organised by CUTS International on November 1-2, 2018 at Taj Palace New Delhi.
Transport connectivity empowers economic growth and competitiveness by enabling movement of goods and people. It helps farmers access markets, enhances logistics for industrial clusters, widens consumer choices, and furthers socio-cultural exchange among peoples. Initiatives to increase trade in South Asia has the potential to spur dramatic growth in the region, from India’s regularization of state Goods and Services Tax (GST) regimes to the signing of a Motor Vehicle Agreement among the BBIN countries to development of integrated border check posts. However, there remain various technical, financial, and regulatory bottlenecks in realizing the impact of such initiatives, as well as challenges stemming from lack of physical infrastructure – roads, railroads, and customs facilities at borders. Against this backdrop, this session will discuss regulatory and infrastructure gaps and opportunities, highlighting the potential for private-sector involvement to help develop key networks of land transport corridors servicing intra- regional and trans-regional linkages.
