Regional economic take-off: Saarc member countries urged to dismantle political barriers

President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ruwan Edirisinghe has urged the political leadership of South Asia to show courage, flexibility and statesmanship to dismantle political barriers and address inter-state conflicts for laying the foundations of a regional economic take off.
Talking to media at airport prior to his departure for Colombo here Wednesday, he said there is immense scope of collaboration in the spheres of culture, sports, tourism, education, research, human resource development, poverty alleviation and environment among the SAARC member countries.
He stressed for collective wisdom to evolve a South Asian vision and fraternity, adding that SAARC members must develop home-grown solutions to overcome poverty, unemployment and economic disparity.
Underlining the need for close bilateral ties, he said SAARC members must allow greater interaction among the policy-makers, parliamentarians, businessmen, media practitioners, professionals and the leaders of civil society. Diversity among the member countries needs to be employed to accelerate the process of development through greater bilateral connectivity, he said. He regretted the fact that the region lags behind the world despite immense natural and human resources, adding that South Asia is still deprived of basic health and educational facilities.
Ruwan said that South Asia could also do well by learning from the global best practices and apply them to regional context for the welfare of its people - a common cause for all member countries. Stressing the need for collective effort for betterment of the region, he said history will not forgive us if member countries continue to be bogged down by narrow considerations, adding that 1.2 billion People of South Asia expect their leaders to exercise vision, statesmanship and think out of box to put SAARC in the league of other groupings. Nothing can be achieved if we do not open our minds to each other and allow connectivity to flourish, he stressed.
He said that cross-border trade could help overcome poverty and strengthen economies. SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme has been instrumental in promoting people to people contact including businessmen and media persons, he added. He stressed the need for evolving sustainable mechanisms to translate objectives of SAARC into reality as well as turn SAARC into a formidable regional body which could rub shoulders with other similar regional bodies.
SAARC Chamber's senior vice president Iftikhar Ali Malik, Vice Chairman SAARC Youth Entrepreneur Shaharyar Ali Malik, Advisor SAARC Zubair Ahmad Malik and Chairman FPCCI Coordination Committee Malik Sohail Hussain were also present on the occasion.