Partner: World Bank
Duration: May 2016-June 2017
Locale: Pakistan-Afghanistan
Team Members:
Vaqar Ahmed, Syed Shujaat Ahmed, Asif Javed, Faiz Paracha, Muhammad Adnan
Concept/Introduction:
It is important to undertake and evaluate the opportunities and challenges emerging from the evolving political economy of investment cooperation in the region along with the possibilities of strengthening investment cooperation between SAARC member countries in a manner that augments regional commitments like South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). Keeping these points in view there is hardly any research that looks at the macro, meso and micro level opportunities in intra-regional investment cooperation. It is even harder to find case studies of successful initiatives of intra-regional investment cooperation. It is even harder to find case studies of successful initiatives of intra-regional investments by Pakistan’s private sector.
Data in this regard indicates that greater investment flows between, for example, Bangladesh and Pakistan, culminated into higher flows of investment-led trade. The Pakistani manufacturers in Bangladesh were importing greater raw material from Pakistan as a result of expansion in their activity in Bangladesh. Finally, it is also important to document how a regional understanding of cross-border inter-dependencies can be created (including in the form of investment cooperation) which in turn will strengthen stakes for all neighbors in the region.
Program/Project Brief:
SDPI is currently conducting a study with brief understanding of the motivation behind, constraints of, and solution to intra-regional FDI and participation in global and regional value chains in the South Asian region, surveying both actual and potential investors in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Objective: SDPI is currently conducting a study with brief understanding of the motivation behind, constraints of, and solution to intra-regional FDI and participation in global and regional value chains in the South Asian region, surveying both actual investors and potential investors in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Work/activities accomplished:
- Construction of data prior survey
- Survey in Peshawar
- Survey in Karachi
- Survey in Afghanistan
Status:Ongoing






