Boosting exports for South Asia July 5, 2021 The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the global economy and world trade. As South Asia emerges from the worst economic performance in decades, exports can be an important engine to help foster economic recovery. In recent decades, exports have been a key catalyst in transforming many Asian economies and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But South Asia, one of the fastest growing subregions in the world before the pandemic, is yet to see dynamic export growth spanning across diverse sectors. Home to about a quarter of the world’s population, South Asia contributes a meagre 4 percent to global GDP while its share of total worldwide exports is lower at 2.5 percent, according to World Development Indicators (WDI). And yet Southeast Asia, with an even smaller share of world GDP of 3.4 percent, is the source of 7.5 percent of global exports – three times that of South Asia.