Upswing in institutional capacity a must for boosting trade: Rehman Sobhan

Country’s prominent economist Professor Rehman Sobhan has stressed the need for increasing institutional capacity and creating value chain for boosting regional trade in South Asia.

"Regional trade is not increasing in South Asia because of politics and security related reasons. Bureaucracy is also hampering regional trade," he told the 3rd SANEM Annual Economists' Conference 2018 on Sunday.

Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said Asia highway and Asian railway was a good idea for boosting trade in the region, reports BSS.

South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) Chairman Dr Bazlul Haque Khandker chaired the opening session of the conference, while Executive Director Dr Selim Raihan presented the keynote paper on institutional framework in the global and regional perspective and news challenges in trade.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) secretary general Ambassador M Shahidul Islam attended the programme as main speaker.

A total of 27 research papers will be presented in the two-day conference.