On 2-3 august, Colombo was an honored City as eight head of the state or government was engaged in a summit to examine, analyze and decide on issues related to the betterment of the people resides in SAARC member countries. There must be debates on the process, programs and methods of development of the region, but one thing is more than a truth that all concern are intending to see a better South Asia in terms of Human Development, Economic Prosperity and Political Stability.
SAARC, in other words the South Asia is a region which has a common ancient history with deferent culture, a single path of historical development with a glories political straggle against British Colonial Power. Once British Colony, presently the South Asia that is the SAARC is a combine of 8 sovereign nation states.
It is also true that through a political turmoil and mistrust the region has passed at least four decades and at last in 80s of the last century 7 states of the region organized under an association that is the SAARC. It was the call of time to enhance regional cooperation as many global challenges was emerging those was must to overcome together. By the time Afghanistan become a member of SAARC and filled up the gap of the region, which started from the west Afghanistan and end up with the extreme eastern border of Bangladesh.
From the very birth of SARRC was trying to be emerged as a political and economical zone of the globe. Finally the expectation of the people of this region was and till the expectation is SAARC would be more economical than a political regional organization in character. Although it was known by all that as the State is a political entity a combine of States must not be a nonpolitical one.
In 15th summit of SAARC was participated by the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, His Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai; the Chief Adviser of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, His Excellency Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed; the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, His Excellency Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley; the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh; the President of the Republic of Maldives, His Excellency Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom; the Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Rt. Hon’ble Girija Prasad Koirala; the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, His Excellency Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani; and the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, His Excellency Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The summit was mostly engaged in many political issues than issues related to human security. It was also a cruel reality for the leaders as insurgency, terrorism and trans-border criminal activities have been hoisted with high intense. And for this reason, in summit the Heads of State or Government strongly condemned all forms of terrorist violence and expressed deep concern over the serious threat posed by terrorism to the peace, stability and security of the region. It was expected that FTA would be in the focal point, the trade issue was less highlighted in 15th summit, but discussed with due importance and the Colombo declaration cited that The Heads of State or Government observed that the SAARC legal instruments on trade liberalization and the measures and initiatives for trade facilitation are increasingly affording significant openings for mutually beneficial trade, investments and economic co-operation within South Asia. These openings are complemented by the uniformly sound levels of national economic growth being attained by the Member States of SAARC. The Leaders accordingly noted the growing and urgent need for enhancing capacity within SAARC dedicated to encouraging national and regional strategies that would further maximize the positive trade, investments and economic cooperation climate in South Asia. In this regard they welcomed the offer of Sri Lanka to prepare a Concept Paper and a Working Paper on the subject and directed that the Paper be discussed at a Session of the Standing Committee specially convened for this purpose, to enable the adoption of appropriate follow-up measures.
Meanwhile a renowned economist Qazi Kholiquzzaman, also chairman of the regional steering committee of the Imagine New South Asia, said SAARC will never become people-centric unless leaders of the region focus on human security rather than the security of nation or state. ‘Without an economic integration, SAARC cannot bring about any changes in the lives of the people of the region. Trade regime will progress if the region introduces a common currency, Kholiquzzaman added. He criticized the South Asian leaders for giving more focus on geo-political security, rather than economic and human security
If we echo the voice of Qazi Kholiquzzaman, should say that, with all limitation, FTA among the SAARC members is one of the main processes that can make the region economically sound, can pull out from the mistrust prevailing, could be able to enhance the people to people connectivity, which is very important for SAARC spirit.#