SADF and Gallup Reveal First Insights South Asia Survey Results

BRUSSELS, October 11, 2011 -

Nepalese paint bleak picture of economic and political conditions in their country — high hopes placed in the benefits of stronger regional cooperation

The countries of South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) are of great strategic interest to Europe, both from a security perspective as well as from an economic point of view. Tensions between India and Pakistan recently prompted pundits to declare the countries’ shared border to be the most dangerous in the world. At the same time, terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to be a direct threat to regional and global security. It should not be overlooked that South Asia not only hosts booming India, but also four of the least developed countries in the world: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Such uneven economic development as well as the above mentioned security problems within the region can only be adequately addressed by closer regional cooperation.

Recent results from a survey conducted in Nepal reveal that public opinion in this country strongly favours more regional cooperation. A majority of 57% of Nepalese respondents confirm having heard about the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and 98% of those who are aware of SAARC think that Nepal‘s membership in this association is a good thing.

The Nepalese paint a bleak picture of the current economic conditions in their country (41% rated economic conditions as poor and a further 30% as only fair) for which they mostly blame the lack of political leadership and corruption. Nepalese have high hopes in the benefits of stronger regional integration. For example, 86% of respondents think that more job opportunities in Nepal would be an important potential benefit of increased regional cooperation. Nepalese respondents, however, are aware that it will be a rocky road towards more regional cooperation in South Asia. The arms race between India and Pakistan and historic animosities are considered as the biggest obstacles to establishing a more intensive regional cooperation among the countries in South Asia (60% and 58%, respectively, regarded these as obstacles) and terrorism is seen as the number one threat to the region‘s security (40%). While the EU and its member states have put in place policies and programmes to promote regional cooperation within SAARC, their visibility in the region is fairly low - in Nepal only half of respondents had an opinion about Germany, France or the United Kingdom, and about 4 in 10 about the EU.

These and other key findings from Nepal were presented at Gallup’s Brussels office today by Gallup’s Regional Director for Asia Nicole Naurath. The survey is part of the Insights South Asia project - a cooperation between the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF) and Gallup. It aims at polling South Asians on issues ranging from economic development, democracy and conflict prevention to economic and political cooperation.  It is the ambition of SADF to continue this project by conducting similar surveys in the other seven South Asian nations forming SAARC: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in order to provide much-needed indicators to monitor progress and transformations in these countries.

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