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148 QUANTIFICATION OF BENEFITS FROM ECONOMIC COOPERATION IN SOUTH ASIA persons in locally incorporated companies are not transferable without prior permission by the government of Bhutan. Although for a country of Bhutan’s size undertaking commitments in education should be appreciated, these commitments have to be critically analysed from the point of view of a foreign services provider. In view of this, the Bhutanese commitments do not seem to be liberal. The first and foremost problem with these commitments is that there are too many restrictions in the sectoral as well as horizontal commitments. In fact, question could be asked why would any foreign investor decide to invest in Bhutan when there are so many barriers. These barriers are also equally relevant in the case of South Asia and it is interesting to note that India and to a limited extent Bangladesh are already involved in providing education services to the Bhutanese students. In fact, South Asian countries could be major investors in Bhutan’s education services. Bhutan should remove some of the Mode 3 restrictions particularly mentioned in the horizontal section. Similarly, it is hard to understand why Bhutan has inscribed unbound under Modes 1, 2 and 3 in its sectoral commitments in the National Treatment column. Mode 1 would be of much interest to the other South Asian countries and hence Bhutan needs to take full commitment in the National Treatment column of its sectoral commitments. Summary of Restrictions in the Sector • No commitments under Mode 1 • A number of restrictions under Mode 3 such as foreign equity cap of 51%, services can be provided jointly with local educationists, etc. • No commitments under Mode 4. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS From South Asia India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan have so far either undertaken commitments or have offered to do so in education services as part of the ongoing services negotiations. However, Bangladesh and the Maldives are the two South Asian countries which have not shown any willingness to bind-in their autonomous liberalisation undertaken in the sector. While there is a study suggesting that Bangladesh has strong import interests in education services and hence should undertake commitments, there does not seem to be any such study on the Maldives suggesting about its possible move under the GATS. The World Bank and others have strongly argued that the Maldives lacks skilled labour force and only a handful of its students have the opportunity of studying at higher education level. There is also evidence that Maldivian students going abroad is a trend for seeking higher education. There are plausible reasons for the Maldives to make commitments under the GATS. At the South Asian level there is a dearth of educational institutions providing higher education particularly in management, engineering, medical and other technical education. The excess of demand is manifested in the region-wide trend of students going abroad especially to Western countries for education. A liberal Mode 3 regime in these countries would certainly play the role of import substitution by providing far cheaper education as compared to what the Western institutions provide. Similarly, lack of qualified teachers at higher education level affecting the quality of education seems to be a regional characteristic. It could be suggested that apart from allowing teachers to move freely across the region, training teachers at regular intervals in better institutions will help tackle the problem. Not surprisingly teacher training is one of the areas selected by SAARC to work on. There is already trade in education taking place in South Asia and India is clearly the leading exporter of education at the regional level. Several thousand students from Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka come to India every year for education. Under the SAARC arrangement India is providing some concessions to the students from this region studying in select governmental institutions. In the possible regional agreement some mechanism could be developed to give concessions to South Asian students studying even in private institutes too. This will make the South Asian education more attractive for students. There is immense scope for delivery of education via Mode 1. As already discussed, this can take many forms. However, distance education and education particularly via internet are of great significance to the region. In fact, this has special developmental perspective as education via this route is found to be several times less expensive than through conventional mode. It has been suggested that quality and accreditation are at the heart of this debate (Knight 2002). The importance of frameworks for licensing, accreditation, qualification recognition and quality assurance are important for all countries whether they are importing and exporting education services. Developing countries have expressed concern about their capacity to have
H IGHER EDUCATION SERVICES 149 such frameworks in place in light of the push towards trade liberalisation and increased cross border delivery of education. The development of a regulatory framework to deal with the diversity of providers and new cross-border delivery modes becomes more critical as international trade increases. In some countries, this will likely mean a broader approach to policy which involves licensing, regulating, monitoring, both private (profit and non-profit) and foreign providers in order to ensure that national policy objectives are met and public interests protected. It has further been suggested that more work is necessary to determine how domestic/ national regulatory frameworks are compatible with, or part of a larger international framework and how they relate to trade agreement rules. Knight also raises an interesting point that GATS is facilitating the mobility of professionals to meet the high demand for skilled workers (Knight 2002). This impacts many of the service sectors and has particular implications for the mobility of teachers and scholars in the higher education sector. In many countries, Knight argues, the increasing shortage of teachers is resulting in active recruitment campaigns across borders. Knight further adds that since many teachers and researchers want to move to countries with more favourable working conditions and salaries, there is a real concern that the most developed countries will benefit from this mobility of education workers. However, it could be argued that the solution perhaps lies in allowing private players to enter the area of education and not in closing the system to outside players. Pangariya rightly suggests that only private universities that can charge hefty fees and attract private sponsors from home and abroad will be able to afford salaries necessary to retain top-class scholars and teachers and create facilities required to promote excellence in research (Pangariya 2007). Bangladesh encourages private universities and the result has been that they have recruited teachers from expatriate Bangladeshis living in countries like the US and the UK (interview at the BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh). Thus what seems to be of paramount importance is the presence of an efficient regulatory authority that will ensure quality in education. In the South Asian context it is important that regulatory bodies such as the UGC and the AICTE begin discussing with their counterparts in other countries of the region to explore the possibility of having some uniformity in curricula in particularly technical education which could lead to equivalence of qualifications and finally to recognition. Although when thousands of students from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are already studying in India implying that there is some acceptability of the degrees obtained in India, this has to be given a formal legal cover.
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QUANTIFICATION OF BENEFITS FROM ECO
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QUANTIFICATION OF BENEFITS FROM ECO
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Preface Our consultations with seni
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viii CONTENTS 7. Revenue and Welfar
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Executive Summary OBJECTIVE This st
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xiii Table 1 EAMA
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xv India A full S
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xvii indicates th
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xix ments on basi
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Part I BENEFITS FROM TRADE, INVESTM
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4 QUANTIFICATION OF BENEFITS FROM E
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10 QUANTIFICATION OF BENEFITS FROM
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2 Literature Review and Rationale f
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4 Effective Additional Market Acces
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6 Impact of SAFTA on Member Countri
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7 Revenue and Welfare Implications
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8 Impact of SAFTA on Inward and Out
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9 Quantification of Benefits from T
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Part II BENEFITS FROM DEEPENING INT
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APPENDICES
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Appendix 8 Intra SAARC FDI Collabor
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Appendix 11 Table A11.1 On an Emplo
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Appendix 12 Original Commitments/In
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Appendix 14 Table A14.1 Telecommuni
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Appendix 15 REFERENCE PAPER Scope T
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Bibliography Abelson, P. (1996),
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 241 Cuba (2002), Negot
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 243 (2004), Impacts of
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 245 Silva, Patricia an
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 247 (1998), Tourism Se
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