By Pallab Bhattacharya: In the backdrop of terror attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul and serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, the security scenario in South Asia and also economic challenges in the form of soaring global prices of food and energy are expected to weigh heavily on the minds of top leaders of SAARC countries when they meet in Colombo from August 2.
With the regional economic grouping having transited from decision-making phase to implementation phase, the forthcoming 15th summit in the Sri Lankan capital will focus signing three crucial agreements—one for the launch of SAARC Development Fund with a corpus 307 million dollars, another on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and a third on Regional Standards Organization which could help evolve a common market for eight countries of the region—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.
While economic cooperation for development is the ‘raison-de-etre’ of SAARC, a pre-requisite for this is an atmosphere free from cross-border terrorism and crime that has plagued a number of countries in the region. While the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters is an encouraging development, it also offers an opportunity for testing the sincerity and resolve of SAARC countries’ to go beyond ritualistic expression of concern over the spread of terrorism and trans-border crime in the region.
This is especially so because the South Asian Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism signed by member-countries in 1987, which envisages sharing of information and extradition, has remained a paperwork. The Convention was followed by the setting up of the Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk in Colombo three years later for collecting, analysing and distributing information regarding terrorism, strategy and methodology. However, the SAARC countries are yet to take a single action under this Convention. What is more worrying for the regional grouping is that it took nearly two decades and the 14th summit in New Delhi in March 2007 to work on modalities to implement the provisions of the Convention. It is this painfully slow pace that has earned the SAARC summit the tag of a talk shop.
What has also prevented SAARC countries from effectively working against terrorism is the absence of bilateral extradition treaties among them and refusal by Pakistan and Bangladesh to even acknowledge that their territories are being used to launch terror activities. The Joint Mechanism on Terrorism between India and Pakistan agreed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf in Havana, Cuba, two years ago has made very little progress towards taking shape. This clearly raises the question that if SAARC cannot implement a regional convention against terrorism, how can its members be expected to do the same work bilaterally. This also points a fundamental trust deficit among SAARC countries in a crucial area.
With regard to economic cooperation in South Asia, the launch of SAARC Development Fund at the Colombo summit is expected to be a major step forward. With negotiations for SDF finalized, projects have been launched for the benefit of the most needy in South Asia . The Fund, which will serve as the umbrella financial body for all SAARC projects, will have three windows: Social Window focusing on poverty alleviation and social development projects, Infrastructure Window encompassing energy, telecom, transportation, power, environment and tourism and Economic Window for non-infrastructure sectors.
It is time for SAARC to develop a sustainable model of economic development through regional cooperation like the European Union and Asian to face the challenges and opportunities thrown up by globalization. It is in this context that the importance of food security for countries of the region should be seen. Sri Lanka has proposed a food security fund to help member-countries at times of crisis and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry proposed SAARC Food Strategy Cooperation for jointly developing and sharing food industry and resources.
The rising prices of food-grains and fuel in international markets has given rise to inflation worldwide and South Asia , especially its smaller economies, have been particularly hit. Relentless rise in food prices and tightening supply constraints have added to worries of SAARC as well as other countries.
Considering the importance of energy for SAARC countries to sustain the development of their economies which have recorded an average growth rate of about eight per cent per year in the last half a decade, regional cooperation becomes all the more important. The natural gas reserves of Bangladesh and Pakistan , coal and petroleum products in India and hydro-electricity in Nepal and Bhutan could serve as the basis of regional cooperation in the form of jointly developing and sharing energy sources and infrastructure across the region to partly offset the pressures of phenomenal consumption of energy.
South Asian countries must introspect that while they have been among the fastest growing regions of the world, they also house more than 40 per cent of the world’s poor and score low in terms of various indicators of human development including health, education, housing, nutrition and sanitation. The challenges facing them are daunting in the coming months in view of the global economic slowdown and a sharp rise in inflation. A much more effective response to these challenges is by way of regional economic cooperation and integration through specific proposals for fostering intra-SAARC trade by widening the scope of South Asian Free Trade Agreement through a cut in negative list of goods to be traded and investment and cross-border transport linkages.
South Asia has lagged behind in exploiting the investment potential within the region. At a time when major Indian companies have made substantial investments in other parts of the world, the 3 billion dollar investment proposal by the Tatas in Bangladesh has been hanging fire for the last four to five years. India has already removed the ban on investment from Bangladesh and is said to be contemplating a similar move with regard to Pakistan . India and Bangladesh are close to wrapping up a bilateral investment promotion agreement.
This has the potential to help smaller SAARC countries widen their manufacturing base, augment their supply capacities and to increase value addition to their exports.
The agreement on Regional Standard Organization is expected to be an important tool for trade facilitation among SAARC countries and move towards ushering in a common market in the region. Free movement of goods will not be possible if there are different standards on quality, safety, health and environment.
All in all, regional cooperation, which has for too long remained hostage to political differences in South Asia, could help SAARC countries to mark its distinct entity in Asia which is emerging as the epicentre of economic development away from the Atlantic . (PTI Feature)
--- PTI
