Bridging the East Trade and Transport Connectivity in the Bay of Bengal Region Bridging the East Trade and Transport Connectivity in the Bay of Bengal Region Published By D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park, Jaipur 302016, India Tel: +91.141.2282821, Fax: +91.141.2282485 Email:
[email protected], Web site: www.cuts-international.org With the support of In partnership with Unnayan Shamannay © CUTS International, 2019 Citation: CUTS (2019), Bridging the East Trade and Transport Connectivity in the Bay of Bengal Region Printed in India by M S Printer, Jaipur ISBN 978-81-8257-275-1 This document is an output of a project entitled ‘Creating an Enabling and Inclusive Policy and Political Economy Discourse for Trade, Transport and Transit Facilitation in and among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Myanmar: Facilitating implementation and stakeholder buy-in in the BBIN group of countries and Myanmar sub-region’. This publication is made possible with the support of the Department for International Development, UK. The views and opinions expressed in this publication is that of CUTS International and partners and not those of the Department for International Development, UK. #1903, Suggested Contribution M250/US$25 Contents Abbreviations 7 Contributors 9 Acknowledgements 13 Preface 15 Executive Summary 17 1. Introduction 23 Trade Connectivity: Existing and Proposed Initiatives 23 Salient Features of BBIN MVA 25 Significance of BBIN MVA 27 Standardisation and Formalisation of Trade 27 Economic and Developmental Significance 27 Integration with Larger Developmental Agenda 28 Strategic and Diplomatic Significance 29 2. Research Methodology and Implementation Plan 30 Define the Target Population 30 Connections among the Different Types of Stakeholders 31 Choice of Sampling Technique 32 Determination of Sample Size: Corridors, Products and Respondents 32 Data Collection 34 3.