In the backdrop of sluggish progress in cooperation among South Asian nations, the World Bank (WB) is now persuading for specific projects to strengthen regional collaboration in energy, transport, food security and other sectors. The WB has already started a technical study on different projects and their feasibility to ascertain how those can benefit the region through these sectors. World Bank Sector Director (South Asian Cooperation) Sadiq Ahmed and WB Bangladesh Country Director Xian Zhu said this during a meeting with Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam at the ministry yesterday. "We talked for a long time on South Asian cooperation, but not on any specific project. World Bank will identify specific project," Mirza Azizul Islam told newsmen after the meeting. He said the WB is studying the cost and benefits of projects and ways on the distribution of benefits among the participating countries. The adviser said the projects will be taken up in such a manner so that all the countries are benefited. For example, he said, Nepal and Bhutan have huge potentials in hydropower, while Bangladesh and India have energy deficiency. "If Nepal and Bhutan can generate hydropower, Bangladesh and India can be good customers of that energy." "But, such projects require huge investment. The question is who is going to invest