BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

COOPERATION BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND THE INDIAN BORDERINGSTA TESIN TRANSPORT, INCLUDING PORT FACILITIES

Author: M. Rahmatullah

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2001v22n4a1

ABSTRACT

A more liberalised regime of trade and transport coupled with advances in international logistics, information technology, electronic documentation, cross-border facilitation measures, streamlined customs procedures, etc., have greatly expanded the scope for international trade in goods and services with consequent increased demand for movement both within and across the national boundaries. This is part of a giobalisation phenomenon, which requires more integrated and efficient means of transportation to reduce travel time and cost. Bangladesh and the Indian bordering states perhaps face less fOrnUdable a challenge than many other sub-regions in the matter of physically integrating their transport infrastructures. This is because such integration, to a substantial extent, would only involve the restoration, improvement and consolidation of old transport links in the context of the present and projected transport demand and technological standards. The benefits from restoration of such transport linkages can be measured both in terms of savings in the form of reduced transport costs as well as in terms of the new economic opportunities that such restoration would open up. The untapped resources in the bordering states of India. like fertile soil, water, minerals and energy could have been used for much more productive purposes leading to industrial development, employment creation and trade in services.