Factors Impeding Economic Linkages & Integration

Abstract

          The paper looks into the factors which have prevented large-scale or desirable level of economic integration between South and Central Asian economies and analysing the cost of this lack of economic integration in the backdrop of immense potential of inter-regional trade, energy supply from the former to the latter and opportunities of the overall economic integration and development. Even after three decades of the Central Asian Republics’ (CARs) independence, South Asian countries, particularly Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, have failed to access and utilize the vast hydrocarbon reserves and economic opportunities offered by Central Asia by linking their economies to the latter. Central Asia once served as an important commercial hub of the old Silk Route and is a vital intersection in Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) which not only aims at connecting China with West Asia, South Asia and Europe but also all-out interregional connectivity.