India in bid to make SAARC deliver on peace, prosperity
Statement by
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at the inaugural session of the
XVIIth SAARC Summit on Thursday
I am delighted to be here in the Maldives - a country of breathtaking
beauty. There can be no better setting for our Summit than this
exquisite Addu Atoll. I convey our deep appreciation to the government
and people of Maldives for the excellent arrangements and their warm
hospitality.
I wish to join my other distinguished colleagues in congratulating
you, Mr. President, on your election as the Chairperson of SAARC. We
look forward to your dynamic leadership of our organization. I assure
you of India’s full cooperation.
Dr. Manmohan Singh |
I wish to thank Prime Minister of Bhutan for his exemplary
stewardship of SAARC as the outgoing Chairman.
Global economy
As someone who has had the privilege of attending the last four SAARC
Summits, I can see the impressive progress we have made as an
organization in recent years. The momentum and scope of our cooperation
has undoubtedly increased. Since our last Summit alone, our Ministers of
External Affairs, Home, Finance, Transport, Tourism, Commerce, Energy
and Environment have met. Greater exchanges and communication among
ourselves should be followed by concrete outcomes.
In my discussions with the leaders of South Asia, I sense a
collective commitment and desire to give greater meaning and content to
SAARC. Admittedly, there is a lot to be done but the political will is
there. We have all come to believe that regional cooperation is good for
each one of our countries.
I reaffirm that India will do whatever is within our capabilities to
make SAARC an effective instrument to deliver on our vision of common
peace, shared prosperity and cooperation.
Our Summit takes place at a time when the global economy is under
acute stress. This has imposed a fresh and entirely uncalled for burden
on our development efforts. We hope that the leaders of the major
economies, particularly in the Eurozone, will show the wisdom and will
that are required to revive the global economy.
However, the world economy is going to take time to recover. In the
meantime developing countries like ours will be squeezed for capital,
investments and markets for our exports.
New avenues
We should seek imaginative ways to create new avenues and sources of
growth and investment in South Asia. If we can create favourable
conditions for development at home, there is no reason why our investors
should seek greener pastures elsewhere. The complete normalization of
trade relations will create huge opportunities for mutually beneficial
trade within South Asia.
We should work to create a climate whereby the wealth generated by us
is invested back into our own region. This will be the most ringing
endorsement of our vision of a regional economy without boundaries.
There are promising signs that South Asia is increasingly getting
plugged into the growth dynamic of Asia. Despite all the difficulties,
we have been able to maintain a respectable growth rate in the last few
years.
This encouraging trend has coincided with the growing pace of SAARC
integration. This shows that we are on the right path.
Marine resources
I believe the process should move faster, though at a pace we are all
comfortable with. I recognize that India has a special responsibility
that flows from the geography of our region and the size of our economy
and market.
I am happy to announce that, in a major trade liberalization effort,
the government of India has issued a notification to reduce the
Sensitive List for the Least Developed Countries under the South Asian
Free Trade Area Agreement from 480 tariff lines to 25 tariff lines. Zero
basic customs duty access will be given for all items removed with
immediate effect.
I recognize that non-tariff barriers are an area of concern. India is
committed to the idea of free and balanced growth of trade in South
Asia. Competition begins at home. Our industries have to learn to
compete if our economies are to have a future in this globalised world
that we live in.
We can all benefit from our respective comparative advantages. These
include our hydropower and natural resource endowments, possibilities of
earnings from transit, marine resources, our scientific and
technological base and above all our young population which will drive
consumption and investment in the years ahead.
Regional integration
We should expedite the finalization of the SAARC Agreement on
Investment.
The theme of this year’s Summit is ‘Building Bridges’. This
eloquently summarizes the imperative of greater regional integration,
and is an objective to which India is fully committed. One such
initiative taken last year was the launch of the South Asia Forum that
has brought eminent South Asians from different walks of life together.
In our Summit in Dhaka in 2005, I had suggested a reciprocal
initiative to provide unrestricted access to airlines from SAARC States
to our four metropolitan cities, and to 18 other destinations in India.
Connectivity has partially improved since then. We must take this
further.
We should aim to conclude a regional Air Services Agreement, for
which India would be happy to host a meeting of officials next year.
We have been talking of a Regional Railway Agreement and a Motor
Vehicle Agreement for a long time. Let us agree to conclude these
agreements as a matter of priority. India, Maldives and Sri Lanka are in
the process of developing regional ferry services. We should replicate
many more such connectivity arrangements in other parts of our
sub-continent.
Tourism exchanges
I commend the Postal Administrations of SAARC for agreeing to
establish a South Asian Postal Union. India is happy to host the ad hoc
Secretariat for the Union, and to sponsor training courses at our Postal
Staff College to train upto ten SAARC officials per year, belonging to
interested Member States.
We should follow up this agreement by improving our telecommunication
linkages to reduce call rates and telecommunication tariffs and
interconnection termination charges. India will be ready to facilitate
the development of a regional telecommunications infrastructure to
improve the quality of connectivity.
We should encourage greater broadcasting, television and film
exchanges among our countries. It is time that we overcome the
information deficit among the SAARC countries. We should encourage our
people to know more about each other.
In this spirit, I wish to announce the following initiatives that
India will take.
We will host a conclave of the top dozen tour operators from the
SAARC region to boost tourism exchanges.
We will take the initiative to establish a travelling exhibition on
the ancient history of South Asia. This could comprise of a hundred
archeologically-significant pieces per country to be selected by member
states. The exhibition can be hosted in each of our national museums in
turn for three months.
Rapid growth
Post-graduate courses in the South Asian University have started in
July 2010. India will increase the number of SAARC Silver Jubilee
Scholarships for the South Asian University from 50 to 100. 75 of these
will be at the Masters level and 25 at the doctoral level.
Protecting our environment even as we pursue rapid growth is
essential. The India Endowment for Climate Change which I had announced
last year has been established. We look forward to receiving project
proposals from our SAARC partners.
We will provide a total of ten scholarships per year to SAARC Member
States for post-graduate and doctoral studies in forestry courses at the
Forestry Research Institute of India, Dehradun.
The destiny of South Asia lies in our own hands. SAARC provides a
platform for us to put aside our differences and work towards a higher
calling. We have a long way to go, but I am confident that we can
realize our true potential through sustained effort.
We have to learn to trust each other and to learn from each other.
The security and stability of our countries are closely interlinked.
None of us can prosper in isolation to each other. We cannot afford to
allow the many problems we face to stand in the way of our ambitions and
dreams.
Let us challenge ourselves to do even better. I thank you. |