This book offers a comprehensive look at the business environment in South Asia, particularly Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It explores the historical, economic, social and political impacts of trade and commerce in this region to give insight into how it has learned the lessons of failure from the past and is poised to capitalize on them.
Bangladesh is considered an Emerging Tiger as one of the fastest-growing economies in South Asia, having witnessed exponential growth in exports. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is still recovering from its civil war and FDI makes up a very small percentage of its GDP. Nevertheless, it also represents a unique opportunity for investors looking to do business in this growing region.

This book unveils the nexus between disaster, governance and development with a particular focus on Bangladesh and examines the legislative and institutional aspects in mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development planning. With the help of rich content analysis interpreting disaster management history of the country, it looks at the challenges associated with disaster management in the context of Bangladesh. The book highlights the most reasonable strategy on how to accelerate a paradigm shift from relief culture to DRR culture. It also assesses the viewpoint of how political economy influences governance and institutional strengthening, thus identifying obstructions and opportunities for mainstreaming disaster management into development. The book also lays emphasis on collaboration between public sector and private sector for the expansion of disaster risk reduction programme. It shows how multilevel governance works for professionalizing disaster management and throws light on policy frameworks developed. This book is a tremendous resource for scholars, practitioners and researchers of disaster management, environmental studies, development agencies, political science, public policy, development studies, governance, regional development, South Asian studies and local government, particularly those interested in disaster, governance and sustainable development.

This book attempts to capture the tremendous growth in Chinese investment in the South Asian region in the recent past. It makes country-wise analysis of the factors that led to the growth of Chinese investment in the region and explores the nature and role of such investment in expanding trade in the region. It also discusses in detail the Chinese infrastructure investment through Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Interestingly, despite being the major investor in several countries, Chinese investment has been seen with some level of doubt. Apprehension about Chinese investment has forced countries to suspend China-funded projects or amend their investment policies. This book tries to address these crucial issues while exploring and analyzing the causes and effects of the same.