Regional framework on arbitration and movement of goods - President SCCI

Regional Economic Cooperation has been one of the top most items on the agenda of the SAARC Chamber said the President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce (SCCI) Macky Hashim, making the welcome address at the SAARC Business Leaders Conclave held in, India recently said.

To achieve this, SCCI has been working on a number of issues on this front. We have drawn up a regional framework on Arbitration and prepared a draft agreement on Movement of goods and services. We have brought our nations together on WTO issues through numerous programmes.

'We have conferred on investment flows and their impact on poverty reduction. We are also working on possibilities of harmonisation of standards in the region,' Hashim said.

Analysing the global economic scenario and patterns of development, what we find similar in the development process is the participation of private sector as engine of growth and partner in sharing the increasing responsibilities of economic development. The role of private sector has never been more important and has been globally recognised for many years due to its dynamism and practical approach.

This is the reason why the Government-Industry Partnership Affirmation was presented by SCCI to the Eleventh SAARC Summit in January 2002. It epitomises the positive role of the private sector in this partnership.

SCCI provides a useful feedback to SAARC and individual member governments and facilitates the creation of an enabling economic environment in which the country in the region can capitalise in regional synergies and also become a partner in the development of the region.

Keeping in view of these facts, we in the private sector see the SAARC Business Leaders Conclave as an opportunity for governments in the region to formalise partnership involving private sector and at a number of other fronts as well to march towards an era of prosperity.

"If geography has brought us together it is history that binds us together. And it will be business that will keep us together in future"

SAARC Business Leaders Conclave's vision is to create South Asian Networks for economic growth and poverty alleviation." The Conclave derives the vision from the declaration of the 11th SAARC Summit at Kathmandu, Nepal in 2002;

"The Head of State or Government renewed their commitment to encourage the participation of the private sector and assured their full support for their socially responsible economic initiatives. While welcoming the practice of holding trade fairs in cooperation with the private sector at the regional level, they appreciated the efforts of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry to promote regional economic cooperation in the spirit of public and private sector partnership."

The 12th SAARC Summit was seen with great expectations and interest not only in the SAARC region but in the rest of the world as well.

The Summit saw the culmination of our efforts with the formal signing of the SAFTA Framework Treaty. "While we wait patiently for opening of our regional market into a single free market, we should work collectively on other issues of economic cooperation so that the transition towards a free market is smooth."

The Objective of the Delhi Conclave was to emancipate SAARC of poverty by making it the fastest growing economic region in the world, to prepare member states for a common South Asian Market, to make a South Asian Union like the European Union, to develop an enabling environment for: higher intra-regional investment, to promote South Asia as a common investment destination for the rest of the world, to increase employment opportunities, and to promote corporate social responsibility amongst private enterprises within the region.

Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, Chairperson SAARC Begum Khaleda Zia, Finance, Commerce, Ministers from SAARC Countries, business leaders, professionals, social activists and cultural ambassadors, opinion makers, academics and researchers, from all SAARC countries and outside also attended the event.