Within 48 hours last week, I attended two public events held on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., listening to Finance Ministers from neighbouring South Asian nations talk about the challenges their countries faced in meeting the needs of their respective populations. Understandably, both Ministers were focused on their own countries and audiences. Yet unknowingly, both conversations pointed unmistakably toward the same conclusion: the people of South Asia need each other – and enhanced digital public infrastructure may be a tool for addressing their common challenges while building bridges between the region’s citizens.
The sessions were convened by the Atlantic Council as part of its series of dialogues linked to the IMF/World Bank Meetings and brought together senior government officials, central bankers, private sector leaders, diaspora leaders, and development practitioners. The similarities and contrasts between the two events were striking – and instructive.
Islamabad’s Polished Optimism
Paying his fourth visit to the Atlantic Council, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presented a confident picture of his country’s economic trajectory. He spoke of stabilising foreign exchange reserves, improvements in the current account, and – most notably – Pakistan’s genuine achievements in enhancing digital public infrastructure. These achievements are real. With support from partners, Pakistan has made measurable progress in digital financial systems, identity infrastructure, and fintech through institutions like Karandaz. Aurangzeb is a credible, reform-minded technocrat, and his enthusiasm for Pakistan’s digital journey was not without foundation.
The world’s attention is rightly focused on conflict, inflation, and geopolitical fragmentation. But in two quiet rooms in Washington last week, two South Asian Finance Ministers — without meeting each other — outlined a shared challenge and, inadvertently, a shared path forward.
But the full picture is more complicated. Even as the world’s attention is focused on events in Islamabad, Pakistan’s reserves are being shored up by emergency bilateral deposits – including a freshly completed $3 billion Saudi infusion – rather than earned through export growth or structural reform. The country faces gross external financing requirements approaching $20 billion annually for the next two years. It is currently navigating a fraught renegotiation on the release of an additional IMF tranche, its 21st such programme in 65 years. And the ongoing US-Iran-Israel conflict is compounding pressure on energy costs, Gulf remittance flows, and agricultural inputs. The confidence in the room was real. So were the headwinds outside it.
Dhaka’s Disarming Candour
The Bangladesh session felt different from the moment Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khusro Mahmud Chowdhury began to speak. The Atlantic Council event was a Washington debut for both the Minister and his government, who had been in office for only two months. Where his Pakistani counterpart was able to continue an ongoing conversation with his Washington audience, Minister Khusro was reintroducing himself and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Rather than bluster, the Bangladeshi Minister offered something rarer in these settings: honesty. The Minister was open and direct about the challenges inherited by Bangladesh’s new government – economic pressures compounded by regional instability, the need for external capital to stabilise public finances, and the urgency of building domestic revenue capacity. He was warmly received, and rightly so.
What struck me most, however, was the shared ambition articulated by another Member of the Bangladeshi delegation, Rehan Asad, the Cabinet-level IT adviser to the Prime Minister. As it embarks upon its own path towards reform, Bangladesh is actively studying the DPI journeys of other countries. It is seeking a model that fits its scale, its institutional culture, and its fiscal constraints. It is hungry to learn, ready to move, and eager to leverage expertise from the diaspora and from other countries that have faced similar challenges.
The Connection Nobody Made – Until Now
In a brief but substantive exchange on the sidelines, I raised with members of Bangladesh’s delegation a question that I believe deserves a full conversation: why not Pakistan? This was built on a theme I had explored during a visit to Dhaka in March, just after the BNP government took office. For sure, Bangladesh should study myriad models of the vast Indian DPI architecture, or Estonia’s pioneering e-governance model. Both are instructive. But Pakistan – similar in population scale, cultural context, colonial administrative heritage, and current fiscal pressures – may offer the most transferable lessons of all. Pakistan has built practical, working systems under real-world constraints. That is precisely what Bangladesh needs.
The response was immediate and enthusiastic. As a next step, perhaps a delegation of Bangladeshi public and private sector digital professionals visiting Pakistan, having peer-to-peer conversations, and observing firsthand the DPI of Pakistan. This could lead to a genuine partnership and could convert this conversation into a genuine South-South partnership. At the end of the day, Bangladesh will develop its own path forward, but there is much to be gained from drawing on the best examples available elsewhere in order to allow it to incorporate lessons learned and global best practices.
Beyond Bilateralism
This moment should not stop at a bilateral exchange, and this anecdote only serves to illustrate a larger point. South Asia’s digital governance deficit is regional in scale, and so should be the response. While countries such as India and Pakistan may be further along in their journeys, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and emerging digital economies across South and Southeast Asia are grappling with the same questions: how to build revenue systems that work, how to extend financial inclusion at speed, and how to use digital infrastructure as a tool of governance reform rather than just technological novelty.
The Atlantic Council’s convening role at the Spring Meetings offered a rare glimpse of what regional peer learning could look like when the right people are in the room. The task now is to institutionalise it.
A Window That Should Not Close
The world’s attention is rightly focused on conflict, inflation, and geopolitical fragmentation. But in two quiet rooms in Washington last week, two South Asian Finance Ministers – without meeting each other – outlined a shared challenge and, inadvertently, a shared path forward. Digital public infrastructure, built with purpose and shared with generosity, could be one of the more consequential forms of regional cooperation South Asia has seen in a generation, and we should not allow this window to close.
The writer is a Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council with over two decades of experience in South Asian development, policy, and regional integration.