Sharing Prosperity by Closing South Asia’s Infrastructure Gap

While South Asia’s average gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the past decade was only slightly lower than in East Asia and the Pacific, the region significantly lags behind in terms of infrastructure access. In some cases, South Asia’s access levels are more similar to sub-Saharan Africa, although considerable heterogeneity exists across the South Asia region (SAR)—some provinces, infrastructure types, and countries have much higher access levels than others. If SAR can’t close its US$1.7 trillion to US$2.5 trillion infrastructure gap, its growth performance is likely to stall. This note examines the type and magnitude of the infrastructure gap, and also looks at inequality of access to infrastructure across physical, poverty, and income spaces. Keeping in mind five key principles, there are several options for policy makers to consider for closing the infrastructure gap while also improving the equality of access.