Bikky Khosla | 05 Aug, 2008
The recently concluded SAARC Summit in Colombo had a greater importance than being just an annual academic affair.

With the failure of WTO talks, regional trade assumes greater importance for a country like India which is one of South Asia's biggest economies. The SAARC member states have rightly pledged to allow trade in more goods under South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). This will enhance trade among the member countries, and ensure trade and investment flows, integration of infrastructure,and greater people to people contacts which is very important in today's exim context.

India being an important member of the group should initiate steps to ensure that the nations go beyond the rhetoric and make the Summit meaningful in the future. Creation of Export Promotion Zones and Special Economic Zones in each SAARC member country as pointed out by industry bodies will enhance investments between them and will thus encourage intra-SAARC investments.

However I get a feeling that not much progress will be seen unless a concrete regional policy is in place. Sadly, till now no discussion along these lines has figured in talks.

The Indian government has to understand that the export-import community needs easier movement of goods, services, and people within the member nations if we are to compete with other big economies like China.

One positive outcome of the summit was that the nations have agreed to include services in their free-trade pact and also to slash the number of items on the sensitive list of commodities that are banned from trading.

It is a really sorry state of affairs that despite huge scope for intra-SAARC trade, till date trade is even less than 5 percent of the countries' total trade volume. And when we compare it with intra-European Union commerce that comprise about 55 percent, I think we have a long way to go. And India has to show them the way.

Being the dominant member of the bloc, India can't just remain a member of SAARC; rather it should look for avenues to ensure that it creates greater opportunities for its export-import community to carry out trade.