Post-Covid Connectivity in the South Asian Region

This month marks a year since the last mails left Nepal. A year on since the pandemic began, businesses and services are slowly returning to normalcy. However, Nepal’s Postal Service is still not in operation. Foreign air-travel suspension because of the pandemic meant that Nepal could neither send nor receive international mails. While in-bound mails started arriving yet again in September, the outgoing services have still not resumed. This is because Thai Airways, with which Nepal is currently contracted, filed for bankruptcy, and can no longer provide the service.  “Our agreement was with Thai Airways so when everything came to a halt, we were unable to continue our outbound service,” Pradyumna Prasad Upadhyay, the chief postmaster at the General Post Office, was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post[i].

A replacement carrier for the international mails has still not been found. What adds up to the misery is the fact that the contract that the Nepalese government had signed with Thai Airways was through international bidding and rescinding that will be a tough task. According to the director-general of the Postal Services Department, Aabha Shrestha Karna, establishing another agreement for the outbound postal service is not that easy as assumed, even though they realise they are losing out on opportunities and people’s trust. There is a need to look at a lot of factors, such as connecting flights, ground entries and transits of airways, to make such agreements[ii].

Understandably, the private courier services have now made a killing, but the national postal services have their hands tied. They are aware of losing out on opportunities and people’s trust, but they just have nothing to do. The stagnancy of the mailing services has made lives extremely difficult for the common folk of Nepal.  For most people, the postal service is one of the most affordable public facilities providing a range of facilities- mail services, print distributions, money transfer, express mail, and parcel services. The General Post Office’s service, has for many institutions and companies, been the authentic source of communication, information and relation building as well. It has also been the genuine channel to distribute YouTube’s certification to YouTubers and to send out legal papers from courts. Now, everything has stopped.

This issue highlights the connectivity problems that have risen as afallout of the global pandemic. Especially for landlocked nations like Nepal and Bhutan, who must depend on passage through other countries for connectivity, this issue is mammoth. There is a dire need to quicky find a solution to their misery, either through regional or bilateral assistance. In order to beat the post Covid-19 economic woes, it is imperative of sub-regional mechanisms like Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) to develop extensive multi-modal connectivity. The need of the hour is large-scale job creation and infrastructure. The present state of connectivity in the BBIN sub-region and the future need of its multi-modal connectivity are to be looked at in this context.

The 2015 BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) is a step in the positive direction, in this regard. It is instrumental in shaping a consensus for creating an enabling environment for seamless connectivity, a factor, which in recent times, is achieving greater political attention in South Asia. The BBIN group of countries can gain sustainably from infrastructure connectivity activities. Better connectivity would further address poverty, unemployment, and other developmental challenges, whilst ensuring better services[iii].  The World Bank India head Junaid Ahmed also recently emphasised recently that improvement in connectivity between Bangladesh and India, alongside Bhutan and Nepal, has the potential to make the sub-region an economic growth pole for South Asia and can add substantially to their GDP[iv].

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Trade and Economic Cooperation has also vowed for stronger cooperation in the post-pandemic days to combat its effects. In the 23^rd Anniversary of the establishment in 2020, the member states (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, and Sri Lanka) pledged their commitment towards better resilience across the region. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stressed the importance of BIMSTEC as a platform for nations to collectively address the fallout and challenges stemming from the pandemic. BIMSTEC can play a more proactive role in uplifting the economic development of the member states by the way of trade, better multi-modal connectivity, exchange of technological advancement and by developing human capital[v].

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to extend all necessary support to the countries in the region to tackle and overcome the pandemic. He also highlighted the great role which India will play to overcome the huge consequences of the pandemic in the region; by sharing its expertise, resources, capacities, and knowledge, with all countries in the region. Since its inception in 1997, the BIMSTEC has been actively promoting physical and economic connectivity in the region through trade, transport, tourism, technology, and energy cooperation. However, the economic gains registered by it have continuously been challenged by natural calamities, climate change, poverty, and economic disparities. And now it faces a mammoth task to challenge the hurdle in the form of the pandemic, by putting a renewed emphasis on developing regional transport connectivity resilient to disruptions caused by any future pandemic or other calamities, with particular focus on coastal shipping, waterways, and railways. The opening up of trade and transport connectivity to restore essential supply chains is indeed a step in the positive direction. The BIMSTEC has also mandated to encourage collective action to address vulnerabilities such as climate change, pandemics, natural disasters, food security, terrorism, and transnational crimes in the future.

The pandemic provides a propitious window to India.[vi]. Integration and cooperation are opportune for the region to meet the challenges posed by a post-Covid World, and India needs to play a key role in this aspect. It has already performed a great task with its ‘vaccine diplomacy’ efforts. Proactive initiatives to lower barriers to trade and investment, as well as hassle-free connectivity, should also be gradually undertaken to attain integration. Economic integration and cooperation expand the market for goods and services, facilitating economies of scale and efficiency. Moreover, the diverse set of comparative advantages in this region will enhance capabilities and overall regional competitiveness. The next wave of trade for this region will be driven by an increased share of services, assisted by the advent of digital technology in the region[vii].

The regional economic bloc would need cooperative investment strategies to ensure cross border infrastructural connectivity and flows. Improving the physical transport infrastructure is pressing for creating an economic corridor as the current state of logistics is stifling trade and offsetting the upsides of proximate geographical positioning of these nations. Lower container-port performance makes shipping cost double and take 50% longer in South Asia than what it does in the South East. Improving port efficiency requires collective efforts by countries, making cross border infrastructural investment even more pressing.

India will be an integral facilitator and component to this economic bloc. It needs to quickly initiate efforts to show its goodwill in the region, something which it has greatly done by providing assistance by supplying Covid vaccines. Besides using vaccines as a diplomatic tool, it should also undertake all possible efforts to win the trust of the nations in the region, otherwise Chine will be swooping down. Being the largest economy here, it can lead the process by advancing trade policies and cross border solutions to shared roadblocks, further answering the issues of connectivity which have arisen in the region as a result of the pandemic.

[i] “A year on, Nepal is yet to resume its outbound postal services”, South Asia Monitor, 2 March 2021

A year on, Nepal is yet to resume its outbound postal services | South Asia Monitor

[ii] Srizu Bajracharya, , “Outbound Postal Services have stopped for a year now. Officials don’t know when it will resume”, The Katmandu Post, 2 March 2021

[iii] Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, ,  “Multi-modal connectivity imperative for BBIN to beat post-Covid economic woes: Think Tank,” The Economic Times, July 8 2020

[iv] Press Trust of India, “BBIN Countries in South Asia can be economic growth pol: WB India Head,” Business Standard, March 9 2021

[v] “BIMSTEC leaders pledge to collectively combat Covid-19 impact,” South Asia Monitor, June 6 2020

[vi] Elizabeth Roche, , “India, China flex muscle to gain supremacy in post-covid South Asia”, Live Mint, November 13 2020

[vii] Rajesh,Mehta, and Govind,Gupta, “Reimagining India’s Role in South Asia- The China Factor,” The Financial Express, February 15, 2021

Sagnik Sarkar

Intern Asia in Global Affairs