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Regional Free Trade

1. That the SAFTA framework be ready by 2001 and that a social charter for the region be developed beyond national Plans of Action. Progress in these two areas has been rather slow due to a lack of unanimity among member states. Likewise, despite several directives, the fourth round of SAPTA negotiations have still to begin. These are areas which need to be looked at, independently from political problems that may exist between member states, so that concrete decisions with well-defined time frames will be taken at summit level.

2. The Government of Sri Lanka agreed to provide, at its own expense, an economist at the SAARC Secretariat initially for a period of two years. This was to assure the SAARC countries that the time had come for SAARC to have its own specialists and professionals to serve the multifarious needs of expanding regional cooperation.

The economist has been placed in the Secretariat since November 1999, and has done considerable work in identifying areas which have potential for greater economic cooperation within South Asia. It is now timely that the other countries followed suit and placed their own experts at the Secretariat in order to strengthen the research and analysis capacity in areas of crucial concern to SAARC. We also need to look beyond temporary remedies and take policy decisions to enable the Secretariat to have its own pool of specialists in the near future.

3. During the last three years there has been an unprecedented upsurge of interest and enthusiasm among civil society and professional groups to reach out to each other across the region, enhancing people to people contact, which is a laudable objective of SAARC.

The South Asian People's Summit held in Colombo in 2000 and numerous other gatherings of professional groups in the region, including the latest one on "SAARC in the 21st Century" in Kathmandu in December 2001, continue to emphasize the importance and inevitability of South Asia staying together and working together, in order that we face successfully the challenges of the modern world and the globalised economy.

It is important that SAARC encourage these initiatives thus moving the goal of regional cooperation beyond the realm of inter-governmental activity into the hearts of our peoples.

It would be useful to consider the extension of the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme and conferment of official SAARC recognition on such groups.

4. Economic Cooperation

The Tenth Summit met at a time when there was a severe economic meltdown in South East Asia and in other regions of the world. The much vaunted process of globalization and trade liberalization was making its impact, much of which is proving to be negative, on the developing countries.

That summit, therefore, assessed the implications of international developments on the economies of South Asia.

The leaders observed that the challenges and opportunities inherent in these developments, which were radically transforming the socio-economic landscape of the region could best be met through effective, regional and bilateral cooperation between member states.

It was decided to intensify economic cooperation and to evolve credible, collective responses from the region to global, financial and economic challenges. In fact, the network of researchers constituted by the Tenth SAARC Summit is doing considerable work in this area, as well as the governors of central banks and representatives of finance ministries.

While these initiatives are welcomed and appreciated, much work has yet to be done in developing concrete solutions to regional problems.

The Eleventh Summit provides us the opportunity to build on this momentum and issue clear directives for intensifying efforts to develop collective positions on global issues.

5. Trade

The SAARC Summit also directed that the volume of trade within the region be expanded.

Greater focus was placed on the removal of structural impediments and non-tariff barriers.

It was decided to revise the domestic content requirements under the SAPTA Agreement, and this was done by the commerce ministers in 1999.

However, many of the directives of the Colombo Summit remain to be realized. A timeframe needs to be established for the completion of the fourth round of SAPTA and the draft SAFTA Treaty.

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