India Urges Saarc To Get Down To Business

Ninth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summit

India yesterday launched a major offensive in regional economic diplomacy at the summit of seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in Male, with Prime Minister I K Gujral formally proposing an initiative to take South Asian cooperation into the contours of a South Asian economic community.

The Indian initiative, seeking to set the agenda for taking regional economic cooperation into the next millennium, but evoking mixed reactions among the Saarc members, was mooted by Gujral during his inaugural address while handing over the Saarc chairmanship to host Maldives.

Making a forceful plea with the summit leaders to ponder over his proposal, Gujral suggested: We should entrust the commerce ministers and the Committee on Economic Cooperation with deciding on modalities for realising this goal.

 

The Prime Minister said: This project would cover crucial issues vital for our shared economic future, such as a regional investment regime, export-oriented joint ventures, easy movement of goods and capital, enlargement of our export potential by raising quality standards and expanded regional market, human resource and skills development, scientific and technological cooperation, upgrading and augmenting of regional infrastructure, and regional diffusion of financial and other services.

Prominent among those expressing reservations about the long-term goal of transforming Saarc into an economic community on the pattern of the European Union were the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

They argue that Saarc should not copy prototypes from other regions as it has its own regional characteristics and slow pace of economic development.

One has to see the feasibility of each single step we take, the Maldivians commented on the Indian proposal.

On his first visit abroad since taking over as the Prime Minister, Gujral said in his 12-page address that it was most fitting that the current visit should serve the cause of regional cooperation and solidarity. I could not have hoped for a more auspicious start, he said amid applause.

The Prime Minister listed achievements of Saarc in the two years of Indias chairmanship which he said had seen regional cooperation and economic integration make rapid progress the world over.

We in Saarc, too, must set our eyes on the future and evolve strategies to meet all the expectations, hopes and aspirations of a new millennium. The ninth summit must erect signposts to direct our collective future, expressive of the enormous potentiality of Saarc, which has caught the imagination of our people, he said.

Welcoming the launch of the third round of South Asian Preferential Trade Arrangement (Sapta) talks shortly to further accelerate the pace of trade liberalisation in the region, Gujral called for further extension of tariff concessions to cover all product lines, accompanied by dismantling of non-tariff barriers.

Gujral said this would help fulfil the objective of a South Asian free trade area (Safta) by the turn of the century, or very shortly thereafter, as pledged by the seven-nation grouping.

The Prime Minister reiterated Indias commitment not to let non-tariff barriers come in the way of expansion of imports from Saarc members states, which would be generated through tariff concessions.

We have already removed these barriers substantially and this process will continue. Our collective effort in the tariff reduction rounds from now on must be to ensure that what began as a trickle in the first round is converted into a cascade, Gujral said.

Gujral expressed satisfaction over the canvas of Saarc economic cooperation which he said was now wide-ranging, covering areas such as investment promotion and protection, avoidance of double taxation, harmonisation in

customs procedure and documentation, upgradation and coordination of

standards, and modalities of smooth arbitration.

We should entrust the commerce ministers and the Committee on Economic Cooperation with deciding on modalities for realising this goal.