Dr. Balmukunda Regmi

Rich in cultural diversity as reflected by the number of languages spoken, biodiversity as reflected by the number of flora and fauna, the small swathe of South Asian land has given birth to religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. The South Asian countries are diverse: two (the Maldives and Sri Lanka) are island countries; three (Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal), land-locked; and three (Bangladesh, India and Pakistan) coastal. All of them are multilingual, multiracial and multicultural. In all of these countries dwell forward-looking, happy, peace-loving, cooperative, modest and diligent people. Yet, this land has been bearing innumerable natural calamities and these people have been haunted by hardships and poverty.

Priority
Successive governments have made poverty elimination their priority. They have tried many options, one after another or altogether. They have sought and received financial and technical support and assistance from rich countries and international development agencies like the World Bank. They have sent their labour force, including armies, to the international market to receive remittances. This traditionally agrarian region has seen tremendous diversity of economic activity. It has produced some of the billionaires in the world. However, poverty is still widespread. High rates of population growth, domestic unrests and conflicts, and rather distributive measures are some of the major factors contributing to the exodus of the industrious populace.
The inferiority of children of this land is rejected by the economic, technological and political successes of the 28 million South Asian diaspora living around the world. Making up about 2 per cent of the world’s population, 19 Sikhs are elected to 338-member Canadian Parliament. Sadiq Khan, a member of Pakistani diaspora that forms 2.7 per cent of London population, has been re-elected as Mayor of London in May for second term. Several Indian descendants are leading most selective American business schools: Nitin Nohria at Harvard, Dipak Jain at Northwestern (2001-2009), Rangarajan Sundaram at NYU and Paul Almedia at Georgetown, writes Ronak D. Desai in the Forbes (2018). The Indians have established themselves as the CEOs of Adobe, Microsoft, Google and many other Silicon Valley firms. Upendra Mahato from Nepal has established himself as business tycoon in Russia.
Then why does South Asia remain poor? Is the region too costly for modernisation? Are the diverse populations incompatible to live together in peace? Are the political and management systems inefficient to bring about a balanced economic growth? Are the leaders exploiting the region as safe havens for corruption? Is it the want of visionary leadership or simply overpopulation and lack of start-up capital or some combination of these? An answer to these questions is beyond the scope of this write- up.
Many aspects of China’s modernisation efforts are impressive. What has captured the hearts of the South Asians is the success story of China in liberating each Chinese from the menace of poverty. Even before China’s declaration of elimination of absolute poverty, most South Asian countries were eyeing the possibility of becoming rich through Chinese assistance and cooperation. The then King Gyanendra’s intention of countering Indian influence cannot be ruled out. But the economic opportunity through Chinese cooperation was the major reason behind his proposal to upgrade observer member status of China into a full member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
While India has been suspicious of China’s intentions, majority of SAARC members have happily participated in the Belt Road Initiatives (BRI). The neighbours across the Himalayas have been observing the developments more keenly since Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed building a community with a shared future for mankind. Chinese declaration of elimination of absolute poverty in 2020 has further won the global attention and trust.
This is in such a background that China has established China South Asian National Poverty Reduction and Development Cooperation Centre at Chongqing Southwest University, China. The Centre is expected to share China’s experience in poverty reduction and support and help South Asian countries to consolidate the results of poverty reduction.
Addressing the opening programme on July 9, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao said that the Centre aimed to gather strength, integrate resources, exchange wisdom, and support and help South Asian countries consolidate hard-won poverty reduction achievements. He expressed willingness to work with the five countries in South Asia to continuously carry out various forms of poverty alleviation cooperation, and explore ways of poverty reduction and sustainable development that are in line with the actual conditions of the region.
Based on its own successful experience, the Chinese side has promised formulating pragmatic, effective and targeted training programs, and will adopt a combination of online and offline teaching methods to start poverty reduction training classes as soon as possible. He said China will discuss the establishment of a number of bilateral and multilateral poverty reduction cooperation demonstration projects to promote continuous new progress in poverty reduction in various countries. The ambassadors from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh present in the programme have echoed with him.

Good initiative
This is a good initiative. Cooperation aimed at poverty alleviation justifies the participation of these countries in the BRI, and helps China sell its proposal for building a community with a shared future for mankind. To the South Asian countries crippled with unemployment, under-employment, economic poverty and activities of different identity-based interest groups, the Chinese efforts may create a favourable environment for economic activities through focus on poverty alleviation, helping put aside all other issues. This may emerge as a deciding factor in their effort of poverty alleviation, because after all, the system has to ensure that the existing poor are pulled out of the poverty with external support, and the falling down to poverty of new people has to be avoided by engaging the vulnerable ones in a sustainable economic activity.

(Regmi is a professor at Tribhuvan University and a researcher at Charhar Institute, China)