Abstract
The Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea (BoBAS) are surrounded by a number of countries, namely Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, which are actually located in the adjacent regions of South Asia (SA) and Southeast Asia (SEA). The inclusion of a few other countries of SA in the framework covers the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for any discussion on these areas which are physically close and culturally linked. In fact, since ancient time, these countries have had deep historical links, ‘with established routes for the movement of goods and services, along with people. The trans-boundary connections had facilitated intersections of ideas, arts and sciences. Apart from commodities along the spice, silk and tea routes, religious influences were also carried across this region. Indeed both overland and maritime routes were used with varied efficacy over the past centuries.’ (Datta, 2017). This was especially true when India and China dominated the world economy up until the eighteenth century. Thereafter, the European colonialism spread into Asia like other parts of the world. Consequently, economic dominance shifted to the western part of the world from the Asian giants. Partly because of the export of the imperial rivalry of the West European countries, the cross-boundary linkages between SA and SEA became tenuous; interdependency decreased and new alignments emerged. This further diluted the cross-border and regional linkages of the BoBAS rim countries.
However, since the beginning of the twenty-first century and the new millennium, Asia’s economic growth trajectory has been causing a shift in the global economic gravity, away from the West to Asia again. In the new growth dynamics, countries in the Southeast Asian region have emerged as significant players with their increasing strength to generate economic growth, attract international investment and foster social development. In the meanwhile, some countries in South Asia are also recording their own growth chart at higher levels. However, the critical difference in the growth story of these two regions remains that while the growth in SEA has significantly been pushed by external investments, for South Asian countries, this has been achieved mostly through the use of their own indigenous economic and social resources. In the end, the economies in both regions have expanded and added synergistic value addition.
Lately, however, a new reality may have emerged in the growth pattern because the economic boom of more than two decades in China is slowing down and its growth is buckling under the pressure of debt. At the same time, the GDP of India, Bangladesh and Indonesia is growing at an increasing rate. Re-joining of Myanmar with the mainstream has also improved regional trade potential. In these changed circumstances, an important question arises: can the BoBAS rim and other SAARC countries come together to form an economic growth zone of their own? Some statistics of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Pakistan together may give a promising picture. These include their combined GDP, population, area and international trade, the present and future growth prospects, etc. for such an initiative. Thus, a serious economic and political discourse on the issue has become the need of the hour.
This special issue of SAS is the beginning of such a dialogue and provides a thematic space to researchers for exploring the models for creating an economic growth zone in the BOBAS and SAARC regions. In that context, the first article explores how India can stimulate growth in BoBAS region. The second article analyses determinants and potential of intra-regional trade among BoBAS countries. The third article examines the geo-strategic significance of BoBAS by leveraging maritime, energy and transport connectivity for greater synergy in the region. The fourth article investigates the model of development of Bangladesh so that other countries in this region, which are lagging behind, may learn to benefit. The fifth article seeks to answer from the experience of Bangladesh, how economic growth spill over more from the eastern than the western countries. The sixth article explores the model of active engagement of Members of Parliament (MPs) in poverty alleviation in Bangladesh. The last article is an explorative study of patterns of FDI in India and Pakistan and explains how both the countries can leverage from bilateral trade and collaborations.