According to the results of the Doing Business surveys (Doing Business 2007 and Doing Business 2008) there has been substantial progress in streamlining trade in some South Asian countries over the last year. The progress has not been equally spread across the region:

Bangladesh and India experienced the most marked reductions in import documentation and the time required to process imports. In both countries, the time required for processing imports, from arrival at the port to final destination, have been reduced by almost 50 percent, and the number of documents required for imports have been reduced by more than 40 percent.  Bangladesh and India also achieved smaller but still significant improvements in export trade facilitation.  Trade costs in both countries fell for both exports and imports though the cost reductions were much larger for imports.

Pakistan showed no change in the time required for trade, but the number of documents required for imports was reduced by a third. A large reduction in the trade costs for exports is rather offset by a significant increase in the trade costs for imports.

 

Sri Lanka showed a modest improvement in the time required for both imports and exports, though the documentation required for imports was more than halved, from 13 to 6 documents.

Nepal showed very little change in its trade facilitation parameters though there appeared to be some increase in the documentation required for exports.

Overall, the cost and time required for international trade are far greater for the landlocked countries of Afghanistan and Nepal than the other countries in the region.  Trade facilitation parameters in Bangladesh, despite their improvement, remain substantially poorer than for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It takes 10 days longer to export a container from Bangladesh than India, and 13 days longer to import a container into Bangladesh than into Pakistan.

 

International Comparisons:

Despite the improvements, trade facilitation indicators in South Asia remain substantially poorer than those achieved in the G8 countries. More relevant is, however, the comparison with countries in East Asia  with which South Asia is often in competition, particularly in the textile and garment sector.

Trade facilitation indicators improved significantly in Thailand and Vietnam but remained relatively static in China and Cambodia, although the number of documents required for import cargo into China was halved.  It is now reported to be quicker to process exports in India than in China, although the costs remain more than double those for China. South Asia’s competitive position, in some countries and in some respects, appears to have improved significantly: