Xpressions
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC)
A ray of hope!
by Ravindra Agrawal
MBA( IT), IIIT Allahabad
Will it be able to fulfill the dreams? The fourteenth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit has been held on 3rd and 4th April 2007 in New Delhi. Despite of the pre assumptions and suspense of the summit being no different then those previous ones , the participating nations particularly India and Pakistan have succeeded in making a notable difference then its ancestors in terms of group harmony, coordination, common understanding and sticking to main issues. The organization has also increased its member strength from 7 to 8 with the debut of nascent Afghanistan. Same time Indian Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh is elected as new chairman of the organization for next period.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the largest regional cooperation organization in the world with a population base of more than 1.47 Billion spread across 5 lakh square meter area and divided into the territory of 8 nations Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal , Pakistan and Sri Lanka. While China, European Union, Iran, Japan, Korea and USA have been given the status of observers.
The basic aim behind setting up the organization was to develop a trade block of neighboring south Asian countries which can be utilized as a platform for south Asian people to work together in a spirit of friendship, understanding and trust. The agenda was to develop cooperation in the areas of Agriculture and Rural Development, Health and Population Activities, Women, Youth and Children, Environment and Forestry, Science and Technology and Meteorology, Human Resources Development and Transport through “Regional Integrated action plans (IPA). Information and Communications Technology, Biotechnology, Intellectual Property Rights, Tourism, and Energy are included later on. Also the agenda was to accelerate the development by removing trade hurdles and providing a big free market for all. To actualize the dream, SAARC nations have agreed to implement an agreement “South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)” by 2007. But the so attractive and whopping organization have just turned into a futile effort of annual meetings with less or probably no yield due to the lack of trust among the nations and particularly rivalry of two major partners India and Pakistan. I remember, in our vernacular we used to tell an idiom for weak people “Dus kamjor milke bhi ak Taktwar ka mukabla nahi kar sakte” means even a group of 10 weak can’t equate a single stronger one because they will never unite whole handedly and the same happened with SAARC. Despite of repeated swears and slogans to make SAARC successful, they used it as a platform to indirectly raise their bilateral issues like Kashmir dispute, Indo – Bangladesh border issue, Sri Lankan civil war and so on. Another reason behind its less progress is the fear among other nations to get washed off by India due to its huge size, economic, political and military might.
But still then for India SAARC has great importance and can be used as a platform to gain power and strength. India is growing fast, its economy is booming with a GDP growth rate of 8 – 9 percent, its ability in fields of agriculture, science, Technology, medicine and defense is enhancing rapidly. And it can become a global power if it continues the unprecedented pace in future also. For India to be a major power in the world it is nearly mandatory to have equally developed neighborhoods which can ensure a geographic region acting as a strategically magnified pivot and will provide an edge to these nations over other nations and groups in the world. Another option can be to form an alliance with China but it seems far impossible pertaining to the geographical dissimilarities, intensified might to be powerful alone and socio cultural differences. While In case of SAARC nations, two are former part of India itself and other five strongly inherit socio cultural influences from India which makes SAARC a best fit.
Keeping it in view India has always tried to increase the scope, area of coverage in terms of free trade of goods and other strategic pacts. SAFTA was also an effort initiated by India in same line. Though it was accepted in 2006 but the unwillingness of member nations to fully open their markets for business to other members and conflict over the list of trading goods have resulted in partial implementation of the pact hampering the growth and development of people in the territory.
But now in this fourteenth summit, India’s unilateral announcement to open up its markets for trade to other member nations on reduced customs duties has left a positive impression on other nations. They have welcomed the step .most of the nations refrained from raising bilateral issues and showed great interests in making the summit successful. The initiating step of India can eliminate the fears of small nations of being ward off form development by its economic power. And may be that they will also open their markets for Indian traders to trade on same level of custom duties as in India for them.
This will also lead to closer economic integration as well as harmonization of political relations between India and other nations. Now the trade and tariff rules can be better devised , better connectivity and information flow can be achieved, better transportation can be possible, easy and increased number of visas can be given and improvement in public relations can become possible.
But for future, to fully utilize the opportunities, it is very much necessary to increase the importance of SAARC and make it an empowered organization which can resolve any issue of the member nations.
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