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Discussion forum held at Business School of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad.
The discussion was started by Mariam Qadeer a student of MBA-3 she said, ‘SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) provides an opportunity for increasing regional trade which should be exploited by south Asian business houses. Actually, now a day US and EU economies are slowing down so instead of focusing on US and EU, we should now look at intra-Saarc trade which is only 05%.I think its too less if we just compare SAARC countries with other regional blocks for instance intra-EU trade is 55%, intra-NAFTA trade stands close to 61% and even intra-ASEAN trade is 20%. I must say SAARC countries especially Pakistan and India should not mix their political issues with the economic activities.
Farhan Ahmad another student of MBA-3 highlighted another aspect he said, ‘All SAARC countries are geographically connected with each other in spite of that SAARC region has not yet achieved congenial business environment; and identified connectivity problem as a big barrier to utilizing region’s enormous potentiality. In fact, despite having historical geographical contiguity the communication infrastructure is not developed among SAARC countries. Moreover, in my opinion India is the main player of SAARC region its trade within the SAARC region was 8.35 billion $ but its imports from all SAARC countries is of 1.6 billion $. Thus, only India is gaining maximum dividends from the business potential of SAARC region but here I would suggest that by tackling its issues with India Pakistan can also gain maximum benefit from the region too.
Saad Masood also from MBA-3 threw light on the ineffective functioning of SAARC he said, ‘SAARC is a loosely integrated union of south Asian countries ignoring the fact that they are working in a loose gear but the potential of this region is huge. Contrary to this, by uniting together they can cover 1.6 billion people of south Asia but it can be increase by cultural harmony. Actually, SAARC countries have several overlaps for instance; they have ethnic overlap, religious overlap, cultural overlaps etc. Hence, I would suggest that all SAARC countries should double-up their diplomatic efforts at cultural front because it will be helpful to overcome long-standing differences.
Babar Saeed Malik spoke very different he said. ‘Present time is of ‘Economic Independence’ and in the shape of EU we have a glaring example of economic regionalism. So, here I would like to say that SAARC countries should revisit the charter of SAARC according to the present trends as of EU; because this region also has enormous economic potential when EU can have common currency then why not SAARC.
Samia Saleem another student of MBA-3 talked about the hurdles involved in the way of intra-SAARC trade she said, ‘According to a report of world bank: it takes 34 days and requires 8 documents for an average export and 42 days and 13 documents for an average import, these hurdles are making south Asia the second least trade- friendly region in the world. It’s all due to bureaucratic tangles for the time consuming process. Moreover, tariff and non-tariff barriers, lack of appropriate level of trade facilitation, slow progress towards development of connectivity, infrastructure and communication linkages are the major reasons behind the slow growth of the SAARC region.
Mr. Khizar a corporate scholar of business school he said, This region has a variety of areas where business can be done. As we all know that now a days we are facing a sever electricity crisis similarly, we need to have more electricity to fulfill the consumer demand. So, our Saarc countries Nepal and Bhutan have the potential of 43000 MW and 30000 MW respectively. Therefore, if we get electricity from these two countries then not only our Sick industry will revive but new industries will also come in, people will get job there income level will also rise. But here question arises that who will bell the cat means who will take the initiative to put political conflicts aside and move forward for the better future of people of south Asia. In my opinion now this is the appropriate time for Pakistan and India to come forward and join hands for a prosperous future of Saarc region.
At the end Dr. Zafar Moueen Nasir, Dean of Business school of PIDE summed up the debate he said, First of all I would like to share some information related to Saarc, According to an international economic research almost 64 billion $ trade is going waste on annual basis in this region due to non-cooperation and long standing conflicts among the Saarc countries. Secondly, there are no’s of areas for cooperation for instance, poverty is very high in this region in India 300 million people are living below poverty line similarly, almost same is the case with Pakistan, Bangla Desh , Afghanistan etc. So, all members can and they should cooperate with each other to overcome huge poverty. For instance, a food bank can be established to reduce food security issues in the region. Thirdly, they should cooperate with each other at least to continue trade activities in the region. Actually, if we see the ASEAN region earlier there were only 3% of trade among them but when they sit together and decided to untapped their business so now their volume of trade is 65%. Thus, it means that cooperation is the foremost requirement for the economic uplift of this region. Thank you.
