ABSTRACT
South Asian economies have been enjoying high to moderate growth over the last decade. For example, the growth of India has been about 8-9 per cent and in Bangladesh it has been 5-6 per cent over the last five years (see Part I). This region has also been improving living standards since the last quarter of the twentieth century. What made this prosperity possible? It is now widely accepted that globalization enhanced international trade and that more and more trade made this region prosper further (see Part II). While this region is making strong progress in the early part of the twenty-first century, new challenges will emerge in the long run. The most important among them is the issue of climate change and its devastating impact on economic and non-economic (social, political and security) affairs of the region.
