World Bank exploring ‘border haats’ on India-Bangladesh frontier

The World Bank is looking at the ‘border haats’ already in operation on the India-Bangladesh frontier, with a study commissioned to explore various options to make it bigger.

India Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 28 Sept 2015, 10:33 AM
Updated : 28 Sept 2015, 11:02 AM

World Bank’s lead economist for South Asia Sanjay Kathuria told the bdnews24.com on Monday that the ‘border haats’ provided “a unique and seemingly successful model of trade involving the grassroots”.
 
“One of the World Bank’s key agenda is community development. Border haats are helping people living on the borders trade and meet their economic requirements,” Kathuria said. 
 
“Economic inter-dependence helps cut down tensions and turn communities into stakeholders for trade and development,” he said in an interview to bdnews24.com’s India Correspondent.
 
India and Bangladesh have been running scores of ‘border haats’ across their long frontier, where local traders do brisk business. Northeast Indian states like Tripura have been pushing Delhi for opening more ‘border haats’ with Bangladesh.
 
They also want more items, like hilsa fish, to be put on the list traded in these ‘border haats’. 
 
Kathuria said the CUTS will conduct the study for the World Bank.
 
“They have just started their research on the Bangladesh side of the border,” Kathuria said.