Integrated financial market has to start with political will
The members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation stand to gain from this integration, but their leaders need to set their houses in order first.
A FEW years ago, the countries of South Asia had a farsighted idea: Create a stock exchange or a board where companies of the region would list their shares. Even though the vision crashed headlong into political reality, the idea still has backers in governments and multilateral institutions.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had proposed the creation of an Integrated Financial Market Platform some years ago, but it has yet to be implemented by the member governments of the grouping: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
There is no denying the potential benefits of market integration, which would give companies a much larger universe of investors, who would also gain from having more choice.
