As the dust settles on the road to the Dawki Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Meghalaya, near the India-Bangladesh border, a winding queue of some 750 trucks can be seen lined up on the side. The…

Even though migration is critical to South Asia’s recovery and resilience to future shocks, the region faces several barriers in labor mobility, with high costs and frictions in credit and labor…

Against a tight deadline at the end of 2021, IFC’s regional PPP transaction advisory team got stakeholders to sign off on a restructured PPP for the Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Int’l Airport,…

A new World Bank study finds that collaboration across borders could slash the cost of tackling air pollution, while delivering better results

This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces six papers published in January of 2023 on various topics, including gender,…

A tumultuous year of deep uncertainty brought on by multiple overlapping crises in which South Asia was hit by a series of unprecedented shocks. Here's a look back at 2022 in 10 blogs.

When the political crisis hit Afghanistan in August 2021, the private sector was already struggling with an unfavorable investment climate, political instability, endemic corruption, low business…

Food-import bills are surging fastest for poor countries that are already in debt distress. The danger of an overlapping food and debt crisis is greatest those at high risk of debt distress or…

For South Asia to reach its full economic potential, it must explore untapped opportunities.

As the gusts of the COVID-19 pandemic quieten, South Asian economies, left fragile and uneven in their recovery, are facing renewed headwinds: high inflation, rising fiscal deficits, and…