Kathmandu, February 17:

Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Office of Regional Economic Integration (OREI) will study how to facilitate more effective economic cooperation and integration between developing countries in East and South Asia, states a press release.

Over the past decade, East Asia, excluding Japan, and South Asia were two of the fastest growing subregions in the world. In spite of their ra-pid growth, however, econo-mic integration between the two subregions has increased only modestly, it states.

The potential for sustaining high rates of growth in the two subregions through enhanced cooperation and integration is large. Both regions stand to gain from the consequent expansion of the market for goods and services, increased economies of scale, greater competition, lower prices, and more foreign direct investment.

“However, research on the implications of economic cooperation between subregions within Asia is relatively scarce. Such research is necessary to inform policymakers about the types and sequence of policies to garner support for, and gain from, regional economic cooperation,” says Ganeshan Wignaraja, a senior economist.