In times of falling economy back home in India, a couple of interesting things happened. First, the World Bank’s South Asia Vice President Hartwig Schafer tweeted a synopsis of an inhouse report interestingly titled “Regional Investment Pioneers in South Asia: The Payoff of Knowing Your Neighbors” and second, Nepal’s Chaudhary Group emerged as the highest taxpayer in the country filing almost 1.73% of the tax collected by Govt of Nepal. The group paid a whopping USD 121 million in taxes for the last concluded financial year. What is common between both is that CG or Chaudhary Group from economically backward and seemingly insignificant Nepal next doors is rewriting the rules of business and how.

Schafer’s tweet outlines the fact that Pakistan's Soorty Enterprises, Nepal's CG Foods and Bhutan Ferro Alloy are among the few companies that have crossed borders in #OneSouthAsia to expand and create jobs. Sounds so ironic for India which is more obsessed with dollars and euros foreign direct investment from the USA, UK and rest of Europe and not to forget the Far East Tiger economies of China, South Korea and Japan. The WB report points out that South Asia which accounts for one-fifth of humankind demonstrates limited and polarized knowledge connectivity and low bilateral trust despite nations sharing borders, common history, heritage and culture.

Interestingly while trade and investment are intimately connected (due to geographical proximities), intraregional investment is even lower than intraregional trade. Intraregional investment of $3 billion (as of 2017) accounts for only 0.6 percent of IFDI from the world and 2.7 percent of OFDI to the world. Intraregional exports stand at a higher 7.9 percent of exports.

Nepal’s Chaudhary family’s lineage is from Rajasthan; the Sri Lankan apparel pioneers Amalean, Omar, and Sattar have their ancestral origins in Gujarat; and Bangladesh’s Rahim family had roots in Kolkata while Bhutan’s late Dasho Ugen Dorji, founder of the Tashi Group, was a regular at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club. Yet, the region reveals inadequate levels of intraregional investment.

So, the next time India and Neighbours look for FDI, the rumble in the neighbourhood is worth exploring to kickstart a post-pandemic rejuvenation of the regional economies of SAARC.