President elect SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ruwan Edirisinghe on Monday stressed the urgent need for strengthening of durable collaboration among the SAARC member countries to boost the trade and investment volume in the region and fade out chronic hostilities especially between two neighbouring nuclear states.
Talking to Vice President SAARC chamber Pak chapter Iftikhar Malik by telephone Ruwan Edirisinghe said that with more than one-fifth of the world's population, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region is home to two-fifth of the world's poor. "The region accounts for only three percent of global output and two percent of world exports," he said.
He said he believed that more foreign direct investments (FDIs) can be secured for SAARC if we collaborate, rather than unhealthy and non productive competition. Even trade within the SAARC countries is less than 6 percent, which is a big question mark, he deplored.
He said an investment-friendly environment to promote trade in the region if appropriate steps are taken timely to remove trade barriers and streamline custom procedures, intra-regional trade in South Asia would nearly quadruple from the current US $28 billion to over $100 billion. It is high time for the member states to focus on establishing regional value chains or regional value platforms like the Asean countries to attract foreign investment, he added.
They should also work to remove the restrictions for incoming FDI, such as scarcity of land to set up business. They should also address frequent corruption, inordinate bureaucratic delays and property disputes, which harm investment environment. "To attract foreign investment, South Asia can also take certain steps to reduce corporate and personal income taxes in high priority sectors, subject to avoiding counterproductive regional competition," he added.
He further said in order to tap full resources, first of all three major challenges facing South Asia in process of integrating this region should be addressed immediately that includes addressing political interference, finding ways to restructure both production and export processes and ensure infrastructural development.
Explaining the political hindrance, Ruwan, who is also electrical engineer and Chairman RN group of Industries in Sri Lanka, said "Political barriers come in the way of ensuring trade and transport integration in Asia. When you deal with South Asian issues or cross-border issues, we are traditionally supposed to be dealing with both institutional political players and institutional personal interests through the foreign ministries.
Iftikhar Ali Malik thanked the President-elect Ruwan for calling him prior to assumption of his new portfolio next month assured him of full support from Pakistan to make SAARC Chamber forum a successful entity in the region.
"We will have to autonomously develop an agenda for South Asian cooperation, driven broadly by economic concerns where we are seeking to take advantage of optimality and economic relations," he added.
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