Vice President SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Pak chapter and veteran trade leader Iftikhar Ali Malik while commenting on the 17th summit of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) here on Friday. He said that mega event at such appropriate time was designed to be a global platform and would help forge new business alliance across the region and abroad and help image building of South Asia as a region of great potential for trade and investment. He said the world today has now become a global village. The integration of business and multinational firms had made the world a smaller place to live in, he said and added that distance and time are no longer the constraints for business across the globe. He said a business in UK may have its operational department in Pakistan, its Human Resource Department in India and its help support in Sri Lanka. Iftikhar Ali Malik said with the rapid advancement of technology, the need for sustainability and survival has become crucial perspective for firms throughout the world as competition grows gruesome. He said that current global crunch has become a setback for countries throughout the world especially in developing and transition economies. Therefore, regional co-operation is one of the most important phenomena today which, he added, has now become inevitable as the process of globalization is still at large. He said that SAARC region should emphasis on joining hands in trade, agriculture and economic activities which must refrains animosities for the region. He hoped that in the wake of result-oriented fruitful and me Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Dr.Manmohan Singh, he was confident that deeper and sustained interaction between the governments and the private sectors stakeholder, that business leaders seek to promote, would compliment the ongoing inter-governmental efforts in SAARC to expand and develop trade among the South Asian countries especially between the two nuclear states. Iftikhar said that deliberations at summit would provide liberalization inter-SAARC through SAFTA. The summit could also generate concert ideas in fields of trade facilitation and on measures to improve intra-regional connectivity which he added would contribute to smoother trade flows and reduced transaction costs in intra-regional trade. He said that SCCI has supported the government-industry partnership and remained engaged in dialogue with governments of the SAARC region. He stressed the need for promotion of regional and economic cooperation in South Asia, adding that if all SAARC member countries pool in their resources it would help to improve socio-economic condition and welfare of their respective people. Iftikhar Ali Malik said that South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) must also be made more effective to revive economic cooperation for free trade in the region. About grant of MFN status to India, he said it should be made viable, provided all core issues were addressed through parleys.