Siddique Islam (National News Service) Dhaka, Monday, March 21: The leaders of country’s top ten trade promotion bodies have stressed the need for taking necessary measures for holding the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit immediately.
In a joint statement issued Sunday in Dhaka they said they hoped that urgent initiatives would be taken for holding the summit at the earliest. "The economic co-operation under the auspices of SAARC or bilateral free trade agreement will be difficult until there is clear resolve and commitment at the political level," they observed.
The business leaders said the postponement of the 13th SAARC summit has come as a shock to the business community. For several reasons, the summit was due to be the catalyst for resurgence of economic co-operation within the SAARC sub-region to mark the 3rd decade of SAARC's existence, they added.
Earlier, it was postponed due to the tsunami, which resulted in the death of thousands of people in some of the SAARC member countries.
They also said the postponement of the summit does not augur well for the region and the cooperation expected to foster in various areas, particularly in trade and investment. In fact, the immediate casualty of the postponement of the summit is the implementation of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).
"Similar uncertainty prevails with regard to bilateral free trade agreement between India, the dominant economy in the sub-region and some of the smaller economies like Bangladesh. Market enlargements through SAFTA as well as bilateral free trade are crucial to the people as increased investment and the resultant employment opportunities can help ensure attainment of a higher standard of living for South Asia's 1.4 billion people. Such prospects are being hampered presumably due to the lopsided pattern of inter-regional trade flows, which has created a problem of huge trade imbalance between the SAARC countries," the statement of the business leaders said.
It noted: "This is unlikely to improve unless the larger sub-regional economies demonstrate their willingness to allow free market access for the exports of the smaller and relatively less developed partners through the mechanism of SAFTA and bilateral free trade and of course, through removal of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers. Greater access to the larger economies of the SAARC sub-region is thus, crucially important for dynamising the external trade, promoting investment and diversifying the export bases of the smaller economies of the sub-region. It can also be helpful to allay the fear of distrust that the LDCs may have about their larger neighbours and contribute to bringing peace and harmony in the subregion."
The signatories to the statement included: President of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)-Bangladesh, Mahbubur Rahman, acting President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Kamaluddin Ahmed, President of Bangladesh Employers' Federation M. Anis Ud Dowla, President of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka Kutubuddin Ahmed, acting President of The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Manzur ur Rahman, President of Foreign Investors Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mahbub Jamil, Chairman of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association M. A. Awal, Chairman of Bangladesh Jute Mills Association M. Ali Behrouze Ispahani, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Annisul Huq and President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactures and Exporters Association Fazlul Haque. (End/si )
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |