President calls for enhanced SAARC economic ties

PRESIDENT Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in her address at the inaugural session of the 13th SAARC summit called for a strengthened economic cooperation in the SAARC region which is home to one fifth of the world population and reiterated the need to have common market in the SAARC region.

"We envisage a region where people, investments and trade in goods and services will have unhindered mobility across national boundaries, opening up physical economic space for well being and prosperity our peoples," President Kumaratunga said.

"Our vision looks beyond regional cooperation in trade under SAFTA, towards a future of eventual economic integration in the region. This will include a mutually supportive process of strengthening the physical, legal and technical infrastructure and technical infrastructure and overall connectivity in the region.

"Beyond an integrated South Asia, we also envisage a building upon SAFTA, the SAARC region will become fully integrated into a future global architecture consisting of major trading blocs".

"An Asian economic community which will include the SAARC region for example, will constitute the largest consumer conglomerate in the world," President Kumaratunga added.

"I dare to envisage a South Asia where the benefits of cooperation will become so compelling and tangible that the spectre of inter-state and intra-state conflict will recede into obscurity, releasing resources and human energy for wealth creation."

Addressing the 13th SAARC summit, President Kumaratunga said: "Admittedly, this is an ambitious transformation but one that is worth striving for, not least because it has been effected in other parts of the world. I believe we have the ability to do this."

"I must say that, we in Sri Lanka in our modest way have made some headway in this area. We have free trade agreements with the two largest economies in the region India and Pakistan.

The FTA with India has been up and running for nearly five years now. Despite some dooms day predictions about the big swallowing the small, our trade volume has grown to US$ 1.8 billion and our trade imbalance has dramatically declined," she pointed out.