India has slipped four places to 40th position, out of 62 leading financial systems and capital markets, because of poor enforcement of contracts and low levels of liberalisation, says a World Economic Forum report.

The project seems, at the least, ill-advised: establishing Afghanistan’s first ever stock exchange amid the uncertainties of security and the suffocating presence of official corruption. But that is exactly what two young Afghans want to do.

Nepal’s exports to Saarc countries increased 15.58 percent in the last fiscal year, according to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC). The country’s export earnings from seven SAARC countries rose to Rs 54.37 billion from Rs 47.04 billion.

Bangladesh produces salt more than it needs annually. The country has a long coastal belt conducive to salt production and a great many experienced raw salt producers and scores of processing plants and thus has the potential of not only coming out of partial dependence on imported salt but also becoming an exporting country.

India is developing infrastructure in its border areas to increase trade with neighboring countries, Pankaj Saran, the Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, said yesterday.

We know of hundreds of Bangladeshis earning good money abroad interested to invest in profitable projects at home only if the government of the day can give them guarantee that they won't be harassed by the government party goons and bureaucrats. They want some sort of assurance that their hard-earned money wont be confiscated under some false pretext by any powerful quarter.

Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has said that business is the backbone of the economy and businessmen can play a very important role in making Pakistan a success story.

The only thing positive about the Indian economy today is that it has not collapsed like some of the European economies — Greece and Spain. India still has a reasonably high positive rate of growth though the latest IMF forecast predicts GDP growth for 2013 to be 4.9 per cent only.

PAKISTAN has agreed to allow Afghan trucks carrying fresh and dry fruits up to Wahga border for export to India on temporary basis. The decision reached after two days of talks between senior officials of the two countries in Islamabad would certainly raise serious concerns particularly among the business community, transporters and security agencies.

Defence budget allocation is often misunderstood. Some tend to view it as needless war expenses. Pro-Tamil Elam lobby gets hysterical when defence budget is mentioned. Various NGOs blame defence expenses for relatively stagnant education and healthcare allocations.