The 12th meeting of the Committee on Economic Cooperation (CEC) reviewed the progress on Saarc Preferential Trading Arrangement (Sapta) and South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta). Trade Facilitation Measures, Cooperation in Transport, matters relating to the four Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and future trade relations with European Union after enforcement of WTO in January, 2005.
The CEC, which began its two-day meeting here on Saturday, also reviewed the Saarc-EC Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) under which Saarc countries' textiles and some other goods have duty free access to European markets up to December 2004.
An official statement issued after the first day's proceedings said that the Committee also discussed issues concerning Saarc High Economic Council. The Agenda for the 4th Saarc Commerce Ministers meeting, to be held on November 22 and 23 in Islamabad was also deliberated upon.
Pakistan Secretary Commerce Tasneem Noorani in his opening address as Chairman of the Committee said that Pakistan was hopeful that the Committee would carry forward the common mission to take the Saarc process forward to make South Asia more prosperous and free of human misery, hunger and disease as these objectives were the natural corollary to expansion in trade and human interaction within the Saarc Region. He said he was sure that the deliberations would result in positive assessment and resolution of all outstanding issues and pave the way for the successful summit at Dhaka.
Noorani said that signing of Safta, though a landmark event in the history of Saarc, was still a beginning, "and we have to continuously strive to achieve our objectives".
He said the committee of experts was presently engaged in negotiations at technical level to firm up the Annexes to the Agreement. Pakistan has given utmost importance to this process, he added.
He said that each member country of Saarc has a rich heritage of culture and history. Though this Region has various religions, a large number of languages and diverse cultures, yet they are fighting against common enemies like underdevelopment, poverty and disease. He said: "We need to develop synergies to combine our efforts to defeat these enemies."
In this process, he said, while keeping the identity of each member country, "we have to generate a feeling of togetherness and enhance the spirit of cooperation and understanding on the common goals and issues".
Noorani emphasised that the whole world "is watching the Saarc process" very keenly "because we represent 20 percent of the world population" having natural and human resources.
Talking to Business Recorder, a senior member of the Indian delegation, Ms Tripathi, described the outcome of Saturday's meeting as very positive and constructive. She said that India is a country of over one billion population and it is a big market for the other Saarc countries.
She said that Pakistan would greatly benefit from the free trade process in the region as it has a solid agriculture infrastructure, advanced textile industry and other raw materials. She invited Pakistani industrialists, entrepreneurs and traders to visit India and explore the huge Indian market for their manufactured goods and other products.
About the mood and spirit of the meeting she said that all Saarc member countries want to see greater economic cooperation in the Region.
The secretaries level meeting will continue on Sunday.
Comments
Comments are closed.