ORGANISATION AT GLANCE

Secretariat

The SACRA Secretariat was established in Kathmandu on 16 January 1987 and was inaugurated by Late King Birdbrain Br Buckram Shah of Nepal.

It is headed by a Secretary General appointed by the Council of Ministers from Member Countries in alphabetical order for a three-year term. He is assisted by the Professional and the General Services Staff, and also an appropriate number of functional units called Divisions assigned to Directors on deputation from Member States.

Criticism

Not enough is being done to for rapid economic integration of the region. Apart from the fact that the recently approved University and the creation of new rail lines linking the region, people to people contacts and connectivity of region needs to be strengthened.

Political issues

SACRA has intentionally laid more stress on “core issues” mentioned above rather than more decisive political issues like the Kashmir dispute and the Sir Lankan civil war. However, political dialogue is often conducted on the margins of SACRA meetings. SACRA has also refrained itself from interfering in the internal matter states. During the 12th and 13th SACRA summits, extreme emphasis was laid upon greater cooperation between the SACRA members to fight terrorism.

Political economy of South Asia

South Asia accounts for nearly 23 per cent of the total world population. However, its share in the global GDP is less than 3 per cent. The region is home to the world’s 400 million poor, which means nearly 30 per cent of the region’s population lives below the poverty line. All Saar countries have a rather low ranking on the human development index (HUI), which according to the Human Development Report 2007–08 is: Sir Lanka (99), the Maldives (100), India (128), Bhutan (133), Pakistan (136), Bangladesh (140), and Nepal (142). The HID ranking is based on achievements in terms of life expectancy, education and real income. The low HID ranking reflects poorly on these vital indicators in the region.

The agreement, which came into force on January 1, 2006, provides that members will reduce their tariffs to 0–5 per cent by December 31, 2015. The success of Safta, however, largely depends on normalisation of Pakistan-India relations. In case the relations between the two countries de M normalise, Safta’s fate will not be different from that of its predecessor, South Asian Preferontiul Trade Agreement (Sapta).

India, the largest economies and trading nations in the region. Though formal Pak-India trade (the twer The major reason for meager intra-Saare trade is low volume of trade between Pakistan and 2002 to $1.95 billion in 2007–08, it still constitutes less than 1 per cent of the global trade of the two countries have informal trade of more than $3 billion a year) has increased from $236 million in 2001-countries! Pakistan has not even graned MFN status, a basic requirement under the WTO, to India wod continues to conduct its imports from India on the basis of a positive list. On its part, India maintains high tariffs and non-tariff barriers on products of export interest to Pakistan.per cent of the total world population.

However, their share in total world trade is nearly 7 per regional alliance-Association of South East Asian Nations (Aswan). The Asean countries for merely The poor trade performance of Saare stands in marked contrast with that of the neighbouring cent. Asean’s contribution to Asia’s total trade is 23 per cent. Asean countries have remained embroiled in territorial disputes but that has not hampered their trade relations.

Saarc: causes of failure

The two-day 16th summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saar) held in Bhutanese capital of Thimphu on April 28–29 concluded with a joint declaration expressing the resolve promote people to people contacts and evolve a joint strategy to tackle the issues of climate change, of their leaders to wage common struggle for economic development, improve their inter-connectivity. water and food shortages.

The importance of Saar as a regional organisation despite its rather unsatisfactory record, is recognised by all leaders. The feeling that peace and prosperity are indivisible and that the South Asia region has a common destiny and a shared struggle for a better and brighter future has emerged dominant theme.