#SAARC Dhaka meeting

[investosena2621]

Pak likely to skip meeting of SAARC election management bodies in Delhi

Pak likely to skip meeting of SAARC election management bodies in Delhi

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Pakistan is likely to skip the 10th annual meeting of the Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia being organised by the Election Commission here on Friday, senior poll panel functionaries said.

They said though Pakistan is part of FEMBoSA, it is unlikely to attend the event where India will take over as Chair of the body for 2020.

To mark the occasion,…

[mymedicalstudyblr-blog]

MBBS in Bangladesh trusted Admission Agent in Indian Students

Bangladesh MBBS Admission Consultant

MBBS in Bangladesh best Admission Agent in India

Study Medical in Bangladesh is one of the best reasons cost of study which is comparatively low from MCI Approved colleges in India and other countries.

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Without proper admission guidance many students ruin their career and left halfway from Philippines, which where you cannon find good medical study environment and quality of mbbs education. Same this applied for MBBS in China or MBBS in Russia or Ukraine. Admission Agents to fill there pockets mis guide students provide cheap quality medical colleges. Important thing about medical study is practical knowledge which cannot be accrue without Outs door patients and Bangladesh is best known for population dense country and huge flow of patients make our Medical study accomplished.

Smile Education is one name where you will get best guidance to pursue medical study in Bangladesh. Smile Education Consultancy not like other agent they only carry -out MBBS Admission process in Bangladesh only. Head-office of Smile Education located in Kolkata 10-12 minuted driving from Jadavpur University. Best way to search in Google Map for office location and contact there helpline before meet their office.

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Looking to study MBBS in Bangladesh. Smile Education Consultancy brings you the latest information on MBBS admission in Bangladesh. There are many India students looking for their admission in the medical institution of top repute in Bangladesh. The cost of living and cost of education in Bangladesh less compared to many reputed medical institutes all across the world. The average cost of study MBBS in Bangladesh ranges between 19 Lakh INR to 27 Lakh INR including Hostel. International students and students from India have shown keen interest in their MBBS admission in Bangladesh. Renowned medical institution have seen queries coming from international students such as Bangladesh Medical College, Eastern Medical College, Monno Medical College, Southern Medical College, Dhaka National Medical College, Enam Medical College, Barind Medical College, etc. The low cost and efficient, effective medical education of Bangladesh makes it one of the most favored destinations for medical education.

Advantages of studying in Bangladesh

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See More Details here : http://www.mciindia.org/acts/Second-Schedule.pdf For More Details Please Refer M.C.I. Web Site http://www.mciindia.org 2. MBBS in Bangladesh best alternative Low cost Medical Study outside India

3. Recognition By – Bangladesh Medical & Dental Council & Member of South East Asia Regional Organization For Medical Council Enlisted in the Directory of IMED & AVECENA (Formerly W.H.O)

4. Student can register to Medical Council of India by giving Screening Test to practice in India after completion of MBBS Degree in Bangladesh https://mbbsbangladesh.blogspot.com/

5. Least Financial cost to complete MBBS Course in Bangladesh Private medical college and free seats under SAARC Quota in Government Medical College

6. Adequate patient flow for clinical studies & practice Maintaining Global Medical Education Standard

7. Socio-cultural same as India, environment and climate are almost same

8. Very close to Home Country

9. Security and safety of Individual is ensured in the Campus

10. Affordable Medical Study at Low Package for Middle Class Family Best Option for MBBS Study outside India.

[thetruthseekerway]

Global Unpreparedness in Tackling Coronavirus

New Post has been published on https://www.truth-seeker.info/quran-science-2/global-unpreparedness-in-tackling-coronavirus/

Global Unpreparedness in Tackling Coronavirus

By Habib Siddiqui

Global Unpreparedness in Tackling Coronavirus

As of early afternoon time EST (USA), April 10, more than 1.6 million people are confirmed to have been infected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide. More than 100 thousand people have reportedly died of this virus.

The USA tops the list with more than 502 thousand confirmed cases and eighteen thousand deaths (accounting for more than 18% of the total death toll and more than 30% of the infected people in the world). Italy has the highest number of deaths at over 19 thousand followed by Spain approaching 16 thousand (all these figures are increasing by the minutes).

In recent weeks, most governments around the globe have declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency. Sadly though, many heads of the state lied and continue to do so about this once-in-a-generation crisis. Some of the heads of the state are still in denial of this deadly virus.

As of now, 6761 patients are confirmed to have the COVID in India; 206 people have died. While the first case of COVID-19 was reported on January 30 inside India, the Modi government paid little attention to it. On February 1, Modi was busy preparing for Trump’s visit to India: Namaste Trump. On Feb. 23, Delhi pogroms were triggered against Muslims by his fascist party members. On Feb. 24, the Namaste Trump event was held. On March 4, the first government meeting was held to discuss the Coronavirus issue. On March 9, for the first time, screening tests began at the airports in India.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a ‘pandemic’ on March 11, the BJP MLA (members of the legislative assembly) were taken to resorts in a bus on March 11-12. The BJP government declared on March 13 that it is not a health emergency and in the following days it was busy in toppling the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government. On March 16, Modi convened a SAARC meeting to discuss the pandemic.

On March 19, he addressed Indian people for the first time and announced a 1-day Janata (public) curfew. On March 20-21 BJP formed government in MP after BJP legislators in that state celebrated the fall of the Kamal Nath government on Friday with sweets and bursting of firecrackers at the party headquarters in Bhopal. As the virus problem spread, Modi extended the Janata curfew on March 22 and banned all flights on March 25. The next day, March 26, India was put on a lockdown until April 14.

In the USA, President Trump, too, was busy campaigning and visiting India, and then haughtily stating that the infection was not a danger, the risk being very little to Americans and could well be managed, even touting the idea that the US doctors could help China combat the pandemic, if asked. On Feb. 7, he claimed that the coronavirus would weaken “when we get into April, in the warmer weather—that has a very negative effect on that, and that type of a virus.”

On Feb. 27, he falsely claimed that the outbreak would be temporary: “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle—it will disappear.” When the country’s testing capabilities are severely limited, he claimed on March 6, “Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. We—they are there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.”

Now, Trump knows better and sounds alarming. My statistical analysis of the data suggests that the number of infected persons has been doubling every three days. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, in a worst-case scenario, 200,000 to 1.7 million Americans could die from COVID-19, The New York Times reports. Other estimates place the number of possible deaths at 1.1 million to 1.2 million.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that lives might have been saved had Trump not spent weeks denying the severity of the approaching pandemic and adopted more aggressive actions to prepare.

President Donald Trump finally leveled with America about the desperate reality of the coronavirus pandemic, warning of cruel weeks to come in one of the most chilling White House moments in modern history. Even with blanket nationwide adoption of stringent mitigation efforts, between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could face death in the coming weeks in a cascading nationwide ordeal, according to modeling explained by senior members of the President’s emergency task force Tuesday.

In times of national crisis, the US presidents have delivered grave news to the nation. George W. Bush had to narrate the horror of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Ronald Reagan movingly eulogized shuttle astronauts after a 1986 disaster. And John F. Kennedy kept his nerve to address the nation during a showdown with the Soviet Union over Cuba that threatened to erupt in nuclear war.

According to CNN, no president for many decades has had to level with his country over such a sudden impending loss of American life in a medical emergency as Trump is now being forced to do — after apparently coming to terms about the extent of the crisis himself.

Like his ally and US President Donald Trump, Brazil’s President Bolsonaro has repeatedly sought to minimize the pandemic, first dismissing it as “fantasy” and then just “a little flu.” “A Brazilian dives in the sewer and he doesn’t catch anything,” Bolsonaro told viewers of his weekly Facebook Live program last Thursday. This Sunday, he toured the capital Brasilia, defying social distancing recommendations, visiting markets, and shaking hands with supporters while encouraging them to continue working to keep the economy going.

In Bangladesh, the first three cases of Covid-19 were confirmed on March 8th. Within the next ten days five more patients were diagnosed with the virus with one of them (a 70-year old man) dying on March 18. On March 14, Awami League general secretary and road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader said that no situation had emerged to close down educational institutions of the country due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The opposition parties have claimed that the government was too busy with the preparation for centennial celebration of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujib; only when the event had to be cancelled since the guest of honor, Modi, declined to visit Dhaka to tackle the in-house virus problem in India did the government shift its attention to combating the virus. It was a late initiative but a necessary one to limit its spread.

Almost all the international flights to and from Bangladeshi airports, except mostly a few chartered flights, were stopped. But those who flew into Bangladesh were either not checked for the virus or were able to buy in their no-virus stamp (negative) through bribe when checked!

Corruption remains endemic in Bangladesh and thus, it is no accident that government measures on Covid-19 led a section of corrupt government officers and agencies to make money through illicit means. Since mid-March 2020, according to Human Rights Watch, government authorities have apparently arrested at least a dozen people, including a doctor, opposition activists, and students, for their comments about coronavirus, most of them under the draconian Digital Security Act.

Meanwhile, a leaked inter agency United Nations memo on Bangladesh’s Country Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 estimates that up to two million people could die from the disease in Bangladesh if immediate steps are not taken to contain the spread of the virus. So far, fortunately, there appears to be – if the Bangladesh government report can be trusted – only 51 virus patients and 5 deaths. The government has extended the house lockdown to April 11.

Now with all the economic activities coming to a hard stop, millions of people are without any job and access to the basic means of survival.

Alarm caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is creating security problems in many countries. In Mexico a gang of over 70 people looted a grocery store in the municipality of Tecamac on the night of March 23. Outnumbering employees and security personnel, the looters took food, alcohol, and even money. Some employees were reported to have made off with some of the products not taken by looters.

Inside the USA, while most families have been stocking up on grocery items, many Americans have also been stocking up guns and ammunitions. The fear is: if martial law or curfew is imposed and people don’t have the access to food, esp. with millions of lost jobs, they may break into others’ homes and stores to grab what is necessary. In the past, there had been cases in which people walked out of grocery stores without paying while the store security guards were either inadequate or afraid to stop the gun-carrying customers. So, such fears are not too far-fetched in this land of Second Amendment!

Dr. Crystal Reeck, a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, says all this uncertainty with the coronavirus is causing a lot of anxiety and fear. “And I think one of the ways people cope with anxiety and fear is trying to control what they can and trying to seek to sort of protect themselves and try to maintain as much security as they can for themselves,” said Dr. Reeck.

It goes without saying that all the governments have been dumbfounded and caught flat-footed by this nasty unseen enemy, sobering their arrogance. They saw it coming last year but ignored it until it started killing large scale in China.

Expectedly, outside those working in the health care sector, one class of notable people appear to have been affected more than others — politicians – because of their social interactions. The infected notables include Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK, Iraj Harirchi – the head of the Iranian counter-coronavirus task force, Franck Riester – French Culture Minister,  Nadine Dorries, UK Health Minister, and Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isolated himself for two weeks after his wife, Sophie, tested positive on March 12, following her return from the UK.

Of late, most governments have imposed ‘social distancing’ as one of the measures to curtail the spread of the virus. They may also like to learn the lessons from Germany, which probably has the lowest percentage of death, 1.11 percent. According to experts, Germany’s case fatality rate is so low due to its widespread testing. Unburdened by a restrictive central regulatory body, since healthcare is administered at the state level in Germany, private companies moved quickly to mass-produce those tests, meaning they could be rolled out rapidly to the population.

The governments around the globe need to plan and must develop contingent plan in dealing with not only the virus pandemic issue but also its on time and after-effects. How are they going to ensure that people do not die or lose hope? What happens if the policy makers themselves are infected?

Only the statistics of the coming days will show how effective various governments have been to combat this terrible pandemic!

May God help us all!

———–

Adapted with editorial adjustments from islamicity.

[dailylifepakistan-blog]

CFP delegation to participate in SAARC Chess Federation meeting

CFP delegation to participate in SAARC Chess Federation meeting

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27 (APP/DailyLife.PK):A three-member Chess Federation of Pakistan (CFP) delegation would participate in the meeting of the SAARC Chess Federation scheduled to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on November 29.

“The CFP delegation includes Vice President Amin Malik, Secretary Waqar Madani and Mehmood Lodhi (player),” Amin told APP/DailyLife.PK on Wednesday, as the CFP delegation…

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

BIMSTEC leaders to attend Narendra Modi's swearing-in: India must expand trade, investment footprint in Bay of Bengal region

http://tinyurl.com/y2ndx34s So the word is out. The Narendra Modi Government Mark 2.0 Plus — a suitable appellation given its huge majority in a second term — has decided to invite BIMSTEC leaders for the swearing-in ceremony on 30 May. BIMSTEC or ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Cooperation’ is actually a Neighbourhood-Plus, since it includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and adds Myanmar and Thailand. There’s an obvious minus here, but then SAARC has come to a standstill given Pakistani obduracy on almost all issues including the core issue for this government — which is connectivity. The invite also includes Mauritius and Kyrgyzstan, both of whom are central to India’s ambitions. Modi’s vision of Indian Ocean cooperation was after all outlined in Mauritius in 2015 and was followed by some brisk cooperation including the supply of coast guard vessels. As for Bishkek, a long-sought Central Asia Summit is to be held in June. File image of BIMSTEC leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. AFP BIMSTEC numbers are impressive. The grouping includes some 22 percent of the world’s population and more importantly has a combined GDP of more than $3 trillion. Not that this helped much. The grouping was burdened from the start in 1997 with more issues than it could possibly handle, with fourteen working groups and a rather less-than-evident headquarters in Dhaka. With such a heavy burden, it seemed to lose heart altogether and no meeting was held at summit level for nearly 6 years till 2014. This multiplicity of issues was not accidental but served to underline the very different priority areas of each. Bangladesh is the lead country for trade and investment, but also is trying to introduce climate change. Myanmar is the leader for energy and agriculture, and India is leading in transport and communications, as also counter-terrorism and transnational crime. In recent times, both issues are being highlighted. The first Modi government (2014-2019) seemed to have looked over this grouping carefully and decided it was after all a useful body provided it got rid of the flab. The BIMSTEC Transport and Connectivity Working Group (BTCWG) was launched in that year, and its terms of reference were finalised. The 2018 summit focused on institutional reform with 13 of its 18 points aimed at strengthening institutional arrangement to actually get the grouping off the ground. Just one MoU was signed on Grid Interconnection with a ‘resolve��� to go ahead with a Coastal Shipping Agreement and a Motor Vehicles Agreement. These are not yet operationalised, with Thailand objecting to various aspects of the MVA, but it’s there. A customs agreement is expected to be signed, and the Asian Development Bank is to provide a new Master Plan for connectivity after an earlier one languished for want of attention. An ambitious military exercise near Pune was also pointedly ignored by Nepal, probably under the influence of another powerful neighbour. Nepal sent only its Ambassador to the NSA meeting in Dhaka. So, on the face of it, the grouping is still floundering, even while India pushes ahead on a bilateral mode with each, particularly Myanmar and Bangladesh on land corridors, coastal shipping and customs. Myanmar’s Sitwe port is vital, as also a series of rail and road links with Bangladesh. So with this state of BIMSTEC, why invite them at all? First, with a strong economy which is growing, and common borders with five of six member states, India needs to expand its trade and investment footprint rapidly. Business studies put the trade potential between members at $250 billion, as against the existing figures of about $45 billion. Trade is important to all members, including India, who accounts for about 50 percent of the trade. This can increase only if connectivity bottlenecks are removed. Look forward to the proposed BIMSTEC Development Fund soon. Security reasons are obvious. If India doesn’t go the mile, China will. The Bay of Bengal is vital, nothing less, and a cautious engagement in less than central areas — like coastal security — could provide the first rim of a possible security architecture. It’s not going to be easy. Countries like Nepal will remain skittish. But the sheer strength of the new government may push tentative engagements forward. After all, politicians like everyone else, like to move quickly when they see a five-year green light. It may not be full speed ahead but expect some cautious hand-clasping. Your guide to the latest seat tally, live updates, analysis and list of winners for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on firstpost.com/elections. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram or like our Instagram or like our Facebook page for updates from all 542 constituencies on counting day of the general elections. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function() {n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)} ; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '259288058299626'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.9&appId=1117108234997285"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); window.fbAsyncInit = function () { FB.init({appId: '1117108234997285', version: 2.4, xfbml: true}); // *** here is my code *** if (typeof facebookInit == 'function') { facebookInit(); } }; (function () { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; e.async = true; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); function facebookInit() { console.log('Found FB: Loading comments.'); FB.XFBML.parse(); } Source link

[eonline24news-blog]

Pakistan on Friday said it will boycott an international meeting of parliamentarians scheduled in Dhaka from Saturday, alleging a “malicious propaganda” by Bangladesh against it.

A 10-member delegation led by national assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq was due to participate in the 136th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) assembly in Dhaka.

But the government decided to boycott the meeting because of the “continued malicious and uncalled for propaganda and unfriendly attitude of the Bangladesh government against the people and the state of Pakistan.”

The IPU is the focal point for worldwide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy.

Sadiq in a statement said the national assembly members had noted with disappointment the actions and “negative public statements” coming out of Bangladesh despite Pakistan’s “restraint and overtures” to the country.

“I have, therefore, decided not to travel to Bangladesh as a visit at this point will not serve the purpose,” he was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

The boycott of the IPU in Dhaka is another sign of strain in Pakistan-Bangladesh ties. Pakistan has previously commented on the sentencing and hanging of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders for warcrimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

Bangladesh has said Pakistan’s reactions to the judicial verdicts were tantamount to meddling in its internal affairs and also said Islamabad was yet to apologise for atrocities committed by its army.

However, speaker Sadiq said the parliament had sincerely laboured to harness good ties with Bangaldesh.

“It was in this spirit that Pakistan’s parliamentary delegation had unanimously voted in favour of the speaker of Bangladesh Sharmeen Chaudhary for the post of the chairperson of the executive committee of commonwealth parliamentary association in Cameroon in 2014.”

Chaudhary had won the election with a narrow margin of 82 votes in favour and 78 against.

Sadiq cited another instance when Pakistan voted a Bangladeshi candidate to become the president of the IPU in 2014. “However, it is noted with much regret that the friendly gestures were never reciprocated in the same coin,” he said.

Bangladesh, too, has boycotted all international parliamentary meets organised by Pakistan in the past two years, including the SAARC Young Parliamentarians Conference in August 2016, the International Women Parliamentarians Conference 2017 and the Asian Parliamentary Assembly in 2017.

[lovacedon]

Briefs

Cotton sowing in Punjab after April 15

By our correspondent

LAHORE: The government of Punjab has ordered to refrain from cotton sowing before April 15 and complete it up to May 15 to protect the crop from an attack of pink bollworm, which might lead to low yield, it was claimed on Tuesday.

Ihsanul Haq, chairman, Cotton Ginners Forum, said Punjab government imposed the ban on cotton sowing prior to 15th April under Section 144 to save the cotton crop from pink bollworm. “Provincial government’s decision may reduce the cotton area, and result in shortfall in per acre cotton production, which will impact the national economy,” he added.

Haq said the pink bollworm moths attacked only cotton flowers; so it was better that Punjab government allowed cotton sowing from March 25 so as the flowers were open by May 10 when the temperature remains high enough to kill the emerging pink bollworm adults. “Therefore, the cotton crop will be safer and overall national cotton production will not be impacted,” he added.

  SME conference from March 15

LAHORE: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) will hold the second two-day international SME conference from Wednesday, March 15.

Sources in Smeda said on Tuesday the conference would be attended by delegates from the US, UK, Turkey, Japan, Italy, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Germany and China. Federal Industries and Production Minister Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi would be the chief guest at the conference, they added.

Other expected guests included Khizar Hayat Gondal, federal secretary industries and production, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, chairman HEC, Dr Hassan Sohaib Murad, rector University of Management and Technology (UMT), and Dr Rebecca Fox, professor of George Masson University, US.

The sources said representatives of private and public sector's business promotion organisations, including the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Pakistan Stock Exchange, Leasing Association of Pakistan, Akhuwat, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Bank Alfalah, Association of Management Development Institutes, University of Lahore and the UMT, will also participate in the conference.

  PACRA maintains PQGTL’s ratings

By our correspondent 

KARACHI: The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) has maintained Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) rating of Pak-Qatar General Takaful Limited (PQGTL) at ‘A’, a handout said on Tuesday. 

According to PACRA release, the aforementioned rating remains maintained since 2016, while PQGTL’s Future Outlook has also stayed constant at ‘Stable’.  The report further said that company being an early entrant in Islamic insurance (Takaful), both General and Family, has achieved good brand recognition, giving strength to its business profile. 

The PACRA, in its report, also said the rating reflects sound-risk absorption capacity of the company; however, the rating is dependent on the management’s ability to cohesively execute the business plan.

  Iran’s new visa policy welcomed

By our correspondent

LAHORE: The business community of Punjab has cheered Iran’s new business visa policy, giving a big thumbs up to the introduction of business visa drop box facility for Pakistani nationals, a statement said on Tuesday.  

“Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) warmly welcomes the long-awaited development for it is bound to go a long way in consolidating trade connections between two countries,” President LCCI, Abdul Basit, told Iranian Consul General Mohammad Hossein Bani Assadi at during a meeting at Iranian Consulate. 

“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s leading a high-level delegation at Economic Cooperation organization (ECO) conference in Islamabad amply proves the cordial relations between the two countries.” 

Thanking the LCCI leader, Iranian Consul General stressed the business communities in the two countries would have to increase interaction to share their experiences in the larger interests of the people of two brotherly nations.    

  PSX suspends trading terminals

By our correspondent

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stocks Exchange (PSX) has suspended all the trading terminals of yet another TRE Certificate holder, S Z Securities, according to a notification on Tuesday. “The PSX in an effort to protect the interest of investing public and as required under the PSX Regulations has suspended all the trading terminals of S Z Securities (Private Limited) with immediate effect.” The notice surfaced after the Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDC) imposed suspension on the admission of the broker to the Central Depository System (CDS).

  Meezan Bank wins awards

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Meezan Bank Limited has been conferred with prestigious awards for its excellent financial reporting and transparency of disclosures, a statement said on Tuesday. The bank got the certificate of merit by SAFA (South Asian Federation of Accountants) for best presented annual report awards and SAARC anniversary awards for corporate governance disclosures for the year 2015 at the SAFA Conference 2017 held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it added. SAFA, an apex body of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) represents over 300,000 accountants having membership of the national chartered accountancy and cost and management accountancy institutions in the South Asian countries.

  SECP holds JamaPunji session

By our correspondent

KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) extended its ‘JamaPunji’ investor awareness drive to Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral region for young men and women entrepreneurs, a statement said on Tuesday.  

SECP participated in the Aga Khan Development Network event organised in collaboration with The Indus Entrepreneurs Islamabad and Aga Khan Rural Support Program. Total 50 startups were shortlisted from 3,000 applicants. They were given focused mentoring and coaching by seasoned entrepreneurs from all over Pakistan over a course of several months. 

“Five finalist startups will be given financial support and professional advisory to ensure success of their respective ventures through this initiative,” added the statement.

  German investor morale improves

BERLIN: The mood among German investors improved less than expected in March, a survey showed on Tuesday, as uncertainties about the outcome of major European elections and their effect on the growth outlook for Europe´s biggest economy remained high. Mannheim-based ZEW said its monthly survey showed its economic sentiment index rose to 12.8 from 10.4 points in the previous month. This undershot the Reuters consensus forecast for rise to 13.1.A separate gauge measuring investors´ assessment of the economy´s current conditions edged up to 77.3 points from 76.4 in February.

Briefs

[orfonlineorg-blog]

Connecting South Asia with South East Asia: A reality check

TARIQ A KARIM

Bird's eye view of Irrawaddy

Source: Wikimedia

BBIN

EAST ASIA

EMERGING TRANS-REGIONAL CORRIDORS

SOUTHEAST ASIA

The Rationale

Southeast Asia and East Asia regions are already well-known economic success stories, which emanated from most of the countries in these regions adopting an outward-looking strategy with trade-oriented growth and signaled to potential investors their openness to encouraging FDI flowing in from developed countries from within Asia & elsewhere.

The South Asia region is a relative latecomer to dynamic regional growth that was perceived largely as impeded by inadequate/ very poor infrastructure, high levels of regulations & trade barriers.  Linking up South and Southeast Asia has figured in the political thinking of leadership in both regions, but somehow the conditions until recently were not conducive to embarking on such venture. The post-colonial isolationist attitude of Myanmar was a big impediment to its taking advantage of its naturally configured geo-strategic bridge between South and Southeast Asia.  Developments in Myanmar after it joined ASEAN translated into economic reforms that gradually eased the restrictions and selectively opened its economic landscapes.  The recent elections in that country signal the beginnings of a political transformation, therefore, now offer renewed hope of facilitating linking of the two regions.

However, conditions are not equally conducive at the moment for South Asian region’s westward linking with Iran and Central Asia.

Figure 1: Map of South and Southeast Asia

A Fractured Saga!

Trade and connectivity are handmaidens to each other, anywhere.  However, in the South Asian region, Land and rail connectivity have remained hostage to the negative post-Partition political syndrome.  Although road and rail corridors had been long identified by the UN ECAFE/ESCAP decades ago in its Trans-Asian Highway and Railway scheme presented to member governments concerned, progress remained excruciatingly slow – and painful, particularly within the SAARC region.  Within the SAARC framework also, while senior officials, after many years of hard, and often fruitless consultations and negotiations, finally managed to cobble together a consensus draft regional Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) in 2014, their result did not pass political muster by some and efforts to get an all-SAARC endorsement of the SAARC Motor Vehicles Agreement at Kathmandu Summit in November 2014 was stonewalled by Pakistan.  Following this disappointment, some of the SAARC countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) in the eastern sub-region decided that their economic development aspirations that required increased physical connectivity across borders to boost trade, could not be allowed to be held hostage by some and decided to try and get a framework agreement in place at sub-regional level.  Senior officials of the four countries met in January 2015 and put final touches to a draft MVA for the BBIN sub-region (essentially along lines of the draft SAARC MVA that had aborted earlier at the summit, and declared that others in the SAARC region (or beyond) could join as and when they were ready.  On June 15, 2015, at a Ministerial meeting convened in Thimphu by Bhutan, the Ministers concerned from the four countries signed the BBIN MVA. Trial runs for passenger and cargo vehicles commenced in November, and Standard Operating Procedures tested and completed by end-December 2015.  It allows the four signatory countries to move forward with implementation of land transport facilitation measures amongst themselves, exchanging traffic rights easing greatly the rites of passage across borders crossings by passenger and cargo vehicles, thus promoting increased people-to-people contacts, trade and economic exchanges between the four countries.  The framework document signed is, ab initio, of a bilateral nature in practice, on the basis of reciprocity.  For every vehicle one country allows another co-signatory to enter its territory, makes it incumbent upon the recipient country to reciprocate in equal measure.  Passengers will still be subject to prevailing immigration requirements of countries and goods are subject to payment of taxes and levies as exist. Nevertheless, this is a very positive and historic development within the region, and paves the way for progressive easing of restrictions on ease of movement of vehicles, goods and peoples across the borders of the four countries. The BBIN MVA will become fully operational as soon as ratified by the respective parliaments of the signatory states.

BIMSTEC and BBIN

India’s earlier “Look East” policy, now metamorphosed by current Prime Minister Modi’s government into the “Act East” initiative, may be viewed as mirroring ASEAN’s “Look West” aspirations and is aimed to link up with the latter and beyond to East Asia. The BBIN sub-grouping of SAARC and its recent efforts to put in place and operationalize enhanced connectivity amongst them is an essential first step towards actually operationalizing the “Act East” initiative. The BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), that was formed in the late nineties, and includes the BBIN countries as well as Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, could well also embrace the ongoing BBIN initiatives and play the bridging role between the SAARC and ASEAN regions.  The progression along this pathway has been slow but organically enlarging. The BBIN achievement could not have happened without the upswing in Bangladesh-India relations since 2010 that put in place the critical stepping-stone for forging forward.  In other words, it first required Bangladesh and India getting their relations right before meaningful connectivity aspirations, between and beyond them could be envisaged or embarked upon.

Road and Rail Corridors

ESCAP, ADB and other multilateral donors had assisted the SAARC countries over many years, to identify a number of road and rail corridors to facilitate trade and movement of people.  The BBIN MVA will (or should effectively) enable these four countries to now work together with a sense of purpose for operationalizing, in stages, the following identified road corridors, first among them and then extending beyond them to the east and linking with Myanmar (and thence with the ASEAN corridors);

SAARC Corridor 4: Kathmandu (NP)-Kakarbita (NP)-Panitanki (IN)-Phulbari (IN)- Banglabandha (BD)- Mongla-Chittagong (BD)

SAARC Corridor 8: Thimpu (BH)-Phuentsoling (BH)- Jaigon (IN)- Changrabandha (IN)- Burimari (BD)- Mongla/Chittagong

Asian Highway 2: NE India- Myanmar

Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project: Mizoram (Mobu)-Sittwe (Myanmar)

Additionally, Bangladesh and India are collaborating on linking up existing national highways at Dalu (Meghalaya, India)-Nakugaon (Mymensingh, Bangladesh) – thus establishing a North-South corridor of great importance for Bhutan and the NE states of Meghalaya  and Assam in India.  Bhutan, in addition, has been increasingly using the ICP at Dawki-Tamabil for the last few years, using less the corridor earlier designated for them (Corridor 8), because of operational difficulties and delays experienced by them. Bangladesh and India have also worked together to upgrade earlier minimal facilities at Bhomra, further south-east of Benapole-Petrapole in a bid to augmenting capacity of the latter, plagued for long by technical and handling capacity glitches.

The operationalization of the BBIN MVA will also exponentially augment the ability of peoples of the four states traveling to each others’ countries in personal or commercial transport vehicles.  It may be mentioned here that prior to this development, passenger bus services as follows:

Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala (operational)

Dhaka-Sylhet-Shillong-Guwahati (operational)

Dhaka-Kathmandu (announced)

Dhaka-Thimphu(announced)

Figure II: Road and Rail Routes between India and Bangladesh

South Asia Rail Corridors:

The BBIN MVA takes the long nurtured dream of road-connectivity a significant step closer to reality.  The translation of contemplated railway corridors from concept to reality, however, is still work in progress, incrementally. Of the Rail Corridors, existing or contemplated, for the SAARC region, the following are worth mentioning:

Western sector

Eastern sector

Wagah-Atari (linking India and Pakistan – notably, this particular corridor was never disrupted in last over six decades, four wars notwithstanding; but this is essentially a point-to-point connection, and trains from either country do not foray further west or east beyond these two stations into each others’ railway network).

Dhaka-Chittagong (internal to Bangladesh)

Dhaka- Darsana- Khulna (internal to Bangladesh)

Dhaka-Kolkata (operational between India and Bangladesh, point-to-point, as at Wagah-Atari, for several years now, but needs to be made more passenger-friendly in terms of customs and immigration procedures)

Khulna-Kolkata, (under active consideration between Bangladesh and India)

Agartala-Akhaura (work in progress, with Indian assistance, will link Bangladesh with Tripura State of India)

Agartala-Ramu(requested by Agartala state, under consideration, will require a bridge over Feni River which India is willing to build)

Notably, if the points between Kolkata and Agartala route are linked, either preferably with through trains of both countries or through transferring passengers with national services at destination points, the current travel distance between these two cities will be shortened from1590 kms to 499kms.

Following the decisions announced by the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and India in their Joint Communiqué at the conclusion of the former’s game-changing visit to India in January 2010, the two sides have cooperated on upgrading, synchronizing and operationalizing existing facilities between Rohanpur-Singabad (facilitating transit to Nepal) and at Radhikapur-Birol (that will help both Nepal and Bhutan)

Additionally, a SA-SEA rail Corridor of4,430 kms Kolkata-Ho Chi Minh City corridor is also under consideration, but remains mainly on the drawing board at present. However, daunting impediments remain to realizing this dream, mainly hugely higher costs with more extensive gaps (2,493 kms of missing links) that require to be connected over somewhat difficult terrain in places, and incompatibilities of railway track gauges between different national grids.  The challenges to the entire Trans-Asian Railway project are even more daunting, with 10,500 kms missing links.  Transshipment costs between regions are also costly.

Considering the diversity in the terrain in different regions and locations, perhaps the best approach would be to adopt an organic approach and configure the corridors and linkages in a manner that best appear to be in consonance with geo-morphology of different terrain. In the northeast of India and in parts of Bangladesh, for example, the foothills of the Himalayas are composed of relatively soft clay-like soil, and roads are very expensive and extremely difficult to maintain throughout the year.  Unplanned construction of roads across hilly terrain, cutting hills and leaving naked the sides shaved without buttressing them, in combination with constant vibrations from heavy road traffic and increasingly frequent cloudbursts make many of the new arterial roads unusable for months. Extending existing railway links are also beset by multiple challenges, particularly where water bodies, hugely large and extensive, dominate much of the landscape.  Northeast India, and Bangladesh and West Bengal, prior to the Partition (and even until the mid-sixties) were always water-linked perennially.  The rivers systems had constituted the arterial system, with the railways akin to the venous system, while the roads, large and small, whether primary, secondary or tertiary, not unlike the human body’s circulatory system. We need to rethink connectivity corridors to be in synch with the diversity of the terrain that supports multi-modality of transport rather than uniformity.

Additional Augmenting Corridors

India and Bangladesh, and even Bhutan are now keen to reviving national waterways to augment national highway, in consonance with geo-morphology. Where national waterways can be linked (and the Eastern Himalayan Rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra essentially are trans-national rivers), they can easily be transformed into becoming sub regional or regional waterways.  Conceptually, one could then conceive of the Lower Brahmaputra Basin network linking Bhutan, Assam and Meghalaya (India) and Bangladesh, while the Ganges Basin network could act as water corridor connecting Nepal, India and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and India have recently entered into a direct Maritime Shipping Agreement and also signed a Coastal Shipping Agreement.  They could be expanded to embrace BIMSTEC countries, with Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand also joining, thereby adding another dimension to the transport corridors between South Asia and Southeast Asia regions.

Air Corridors within South Asia and between South and Southeast Asia are still VERY inadequate.  In the eastern sub region of SAARC, Paro in Bhutan, Kathmandu in Nepal, only Kolkata and Guwahati in West Bengal and Northeast India, and Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet in Bangladesh are designated International airports.  Bangladesh has offered to develop Saidpur or Ishwardi as possible gateways for Bhutan and Nepal.  Airlines in the region need to more seriously consider and explore a sub-regional “Hub and Spoke” concept. A major impediment to this is the narrow and extremely conservative approach of airlines: that there is not sufficient passenger traffic to justify extra connections.  This begs the question: if there are no easily available connections, where will the traffic come from?

Other Corridors

Energy corridor

Ready and adequate availability of energy is the key to development. Without fuel, the engine of the state cannot run far.  All South Asian countries are deficient in power supply, whether for domestic, industrial or agricultural use, and still very heavily dependent on thermal power from using coal and hydrocarbons.  This, despite there being nascent capacity to generate anywhere between 70,000 mW to 100,000 mW of hydro power in Northeast India, (in addition to large capacity for generating thermal power as well), almost equal capacity of hydropower generation in Nepal, and 27000 mW in Bhutan.  The latent hydropower in the northeast is largely hostage to lack of incentives for investment, since evacuation of power from that region to the Indian national grid across Indian territory is extremely limited (15000 mW at most), unless Bangladesh were to agree to offer itself as a conduit – which it has now offered, in return for power for itself.  A petroleum product pipeline from Numaligarh refinery to Parbatipur is under active consideration, as is the evacuation of power from the NE to Muzzafarnagar via Bangladesh.

Indian and Bangladesh grids are now being linked in the eastern, western and northern sectors of Bangladesh that could open up vast new vista of cooperation, putting in place. The power grids of Bhutan and India are also linked, as are those of Nepal with India.  These three grids could eventually be triangulated to form a sub-regional grid. Eventually, an interlinking sub-regional grid of symbiotic interdependence would emerge, that would guarantee long term energy for the sub-region, and beyond, and fuel the engines of growth and development for the peoples of this sub-region.  Conceptually, with the still untapped reservoirs of power in Myanmar, the energy corridors could link the two regions dynamically in helping each other fuel their respective economies even more deeply. Were the 3-nation gas pipeline project between Myanmar, Bangladesh and India, aborted in the mid nineties, to be revived, the concept of energy corridors between SA and SEA would acquire dynamic new substance.  The main challenge to converting this concept into reality for the political leaderships is to recognize the need to cooperate in their own larger national interests, to begin with, that would then enlarge and converge into shared trans-regional prosperity.

IT Corridor

In an age today where IT dominates the power of acquiring new knowledge and research, but where bandwidth shortage can be a real impediment to vaulting national ambitions, the idea of also having an IT corridors, sharing bandwidth has now also come of age. Bangladesh happens to possess more bandwidth than it can domestically consume now, by virtue of its sea cable link acquired from Singapore. So it is exporting some of it to the -NE India, with the IT gateway in Agartala connecting Tripura to Cox’s Bazaar through Akhaura. In a sense, an IT corridor has already been established by this deal between the two regions.  One foresees further, steady expansion in this field as well.

Major challenges

While waxing eloquent on all these ambitious trans-regional linking soaring with visionary ambitions, one must at the same time keep one’s feet on the ground.

We must keep in mind that financing such cross-regional infrastructure projects always tend to pose major challenges, primarily being risk prone (subject to a complex mix of problems), mostly stemming from politics, whether domestic or regional being at cross-purposes.  Therefore, historically, there is a tendency to great wariness resulting in financing vehicles being bearish rather than bullish.  Public sector financing also tends to be increasingly constrained due to fiscal challenges to national economies.  Commercial financing has also been seen to be constrained by successive global financial crises.  In such shaky situation perhaps the best bet would be to take recourse to bond markets, and encouraging more public-private partnerships.

Having a large vision for the future

Improving trade & transport facilitation between the two regions would undoubtedly make trading between these regions easier and more stable, while also lowering transaction costs.  But this first needs to be done more within the South Asian countries, where the infrastructure in place is abysmally inadequate and of poor quality when compared with what exists in the Southeast Asian region. Each South Asian state has a daunting challenge to cope with within its own national perimeter. What is a challenge within domestic context is MORE of a challenge in regional/sub-regional context.  Therefore, it is absolutely essential that peoples, across borders in both regions must view potential gains from such cooperative linkages as being perceptively large for both regions to wish to pursue this worthwhile goal wholeheartedly.

This article was originally published in GP-ORF’s ‘Emerging Trans-Regional corridors: South and Southeast Asia.

Selected References:

Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury, Pratnashree Basu, Mihir Bhonsale, “Driving Across South Asian Borders: Motor Vehicles Agreement Between Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal”, ORF Occasional Paper # 69, September 2015.

Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia, A joint study of ADB and ADBI, 2015.

“India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh Sign a landmark Motor Vehicles Agreement for seamless movement of road traffic among Four SAARC Countries in Thimphu”, Press Release, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, 15 June, 2015.

Jean-Francois Gautrin, “Connecting South Asia to Southeast Asia: Cross-Border Infrastructure Investments”, ADBI Working Paper, No. 483, ADBI, May 2014.

Mustafizur Rahman, Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Mehruna Islam Chowdhury,

and Farzana Sehrin, “Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Bangladesh Country Study”, ADBI Working Paper, No. 500, ADBI, September 2014.

“Through Bangladesh, a development shortcut for Northeast”, The Indian Express, November 30, 2015.

Wignaraja, Morgan and Plummer, “The case for connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia”, Asia Pathways, ADBI blog, May 2015.

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