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BIMST-EC, a vital boost

By an interesting co-incidence the BIMST-EC summit gets underway in Thailand today amid reports that WTO talks in Geneva are taking on a troubled complexion.

The situation in the latter forum is that the big and small economic powers are failing to arrive at mutually-satisfactory trading arrangements, particularly in regard to agricultural products.

Subsidized agricultural produce of the West is continuing to be at the centre of the crisis in the WTO talks and this issue is of tremendous significance to the developing countries who have to fend for their teeming millions who live off the land.

As should be well known by now, the Western economic powers keep the prices of their agricultural products artificially low in the world market by liberally subsidizing them.

Consequently, these low-priced products tend to displace the agricultural produce of Third World farmers who are forced to sell at higher prices because they do not enjoy the benefit of government subsidies. Needless to say, the poor of the Third World lose out in this price war.

On the other hand, the major economic powers of the West would have nothing short of the best trade terms.

While they have been ignoring the Third World's demand that they do away with agricultural subsidies, these big powers have been tenaciously pushing for a lowering of Third World trade barriers, to enable their products to flood Third World markets.

It is the contradictory pulls from the two economic camps which are denying the WTO talks an early consensus.

The purposes of our seeming digression into these convulsions in global trade negotiations is to highlight the need for closer economic collaboration among the countries of the developing world. If the developing countries are expecting favourable trade terms on a platter from the West, they are sadly mistaken.

Despite the mounting impoverishment of the Third World, the Western economic powers would prefer to have a stranglehold on the terms of world trade. This is "how the other half dies".

Meanwhile, the developing countries would do well to set up and bolster economic arrangements among themselves since there is no alternative to self-help and mutual assistance in this anarchic situation which is euphemistically glossed over as the world economic order.

This is the reason why we welcome the BIMST-EC economic meet which comprises, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

While the SAARC process needs to be vibrantly sustained, we believe that fora such as BIMST-EC and ASEAN could further bolster the self-help capabilities of the countries in this part of the world, which count among the poorest of the poor. We wish President Kumaratunga and her delegation all the success at the meet.

These multilateral economic arrangements shouldn't be considered as fully exhausting our potential for material cooperation and consolidation either. Bilateral economic cooperation agreements would prove vital supplementary measures to these multilateral economic self-help fora.

Accordingly, we warmly welcome the emerging Free Trade Agreement between Thailand and Sri Lanka. Another promising collaborative arrangement of this kind is the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement.

The countries of South and South-East Asia have, by no means, explored all the avenues of mutual economic cooperation. For instance, the tourism market of this region is yet to be fully tapped. We urge the continuation of the search for mutual help.

Sri Lanka-Thailand ties

Sri Lanka pioneered Free Trade Agreements in this region, with the signing of the FTA with India. Since then, several more countries have either signed or are exploring the possibility of signing FTAs with Sri Lanka.

The latest entrant to the FTA fold is Thailand, which has clearly indicated its willingness to expand trade ties with Sri Lanka.

Thai-Sri Lanka relations go back thousands of years, with Buddhism being a common link. Formal diplomatic ties between the two countries have always been very strong.

These ties were boosted by the visit of Thai Prime Minister Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra to Sri Lanka and by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's current visit to the kingdom.

The proposed FTA will augment trade ties as well. The only way is up, as both countries target the magical one billion dollar mark in two-way trade.

A large number of Sri Lankans visit Thailand for holidays and religious tours. Tourism promotion efforts should also focus on Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka, which is keen to see a corresponding rise in the number of visitors from Thailand.

There should be more flights and attractive holiday packages to realise this objective. In this context, the Open Skies agreement between the two nations will hopefully spur Thailand-based no-frills airlines to fly to Sri Lanka.

Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, now in Thailand on an official visit, has held talks with officials of two recently formed low cost airlines Air Asia and Nok Air in this regard. These officials are due to come to Sri Lanka next month for a feasibility study.

Sri Lanka has a lot to learn from Thailand, which has developed rapidly over the last few decades. Although it is gaining a reputation as the 'Detroit of Asia' thanks to dozens of car plants and other industries, agriculture still remains at the heart of the Thai economy. Its rural economy is an example to the rest of Asia.

Thus Thailand's initiative to invite young Sri Lankan public servants and politicians to study its rural economy is commendable. Sri Lanka will also benefit immensely from the agriculture and livestock pact to be signed shortly with Thailand.

Sri Lanka is playing an increasingly high profile role in the region, as a member of the BIMST-EC grouping. The next logical step is to join ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations. Thailand is among the countries that support Sri Lanka on this issue. Along with the rest of the international community, it also fully supports efforts being made to restore peace in Sri Lanka.

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