Potential Supply Chains in the Textiles and Clothing Sector in South Asia
An Exploratory Study

Even though individual nations in South Asia are among the world’s fastest growing economies it is, as a region, the least integrated. This pioneering study from UNCTAD, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade examines one of the leading manufacturing sectors in South Asia – textiles and clothing – to assess the prospects for developing production linkages through regional co-operation.
The findings show that there is significant unexploited scope for intra-regional trade which would enhance the competitiveness of the region overall. The insights gleaned from the study will also benefit other sectors and regions of the developing world, where regional integration and South–South co-operation might be important routes to trade-led development.
The findings show that there is significant unexploited scope for intra-regional trade which would enhance the competitiveness of the region overall. The insights gleaned from the study will also benefit other sectors and regions of the developing world, where regional integration and South–South co-operation might be important routes to trade-led development.
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Three-stage Supply Chains by Country
There are at least three different ways of analysing potential supply chains. First, supply chains can be analysed from the perspective of the number of times a country participates in different stages of the supply chain, either as an exporter of the final product or exporter/importer of stage I input or exporter/ importer of primary inputs in the supply chains formed. The number of stages in all supply chains in which each of the four major countries in south Asia participates is reported in row 1 of Table 6.1.
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