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India on Thursday pitched for further liberalisation of its visa regime within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) region to facilitate movement of businessmen, in a bid to increase trade and investment.
"I will support enhancement of more SAARC visas so that more businessmen can travel. We also welcome Saarc countries to invest in India," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said at the Saarc Business Leaders Conclave in Delhi. Sharma said there is a need to work together for creating a more trustworthy environment which enables easier movement of professionals across borders. He also said there is a need to open bank branches in each other's countries to help traders.
Trade and economic ministers of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were present during the function.
Sharma also emphasised the need to strengthen infrastructure bottlenecks such as roads, ports and airports to reduce transactions cost and enhance trade within the region.
All the ministers shared a similar view and endorsed Sharma's concerns over modernisation of infrastructure. "Connectivity is a problem in this region. We need to improve it to enhance trade," Nepalese Commerce Minister Shanker Prasad Koirala said.
Sharma noted that better infrastructure was the need of the hour, without which transactions cost would not be competitive in the global market.
All the ministers asserted their desire to strongly build the SAARC region as huge potential exists for trade and investments." SAARC is walking, but it needs to run, and now it is the time to gallop. Nepal and Bhutan has huge potential to generate power but we are not able to do that. If we come together and increase cooperation, we can do much better," Bhutanese Economic Affairs Minister Norbu Wangchuk said.
Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said, "We should sit together and discuss ways to increase trade".Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Commerce Mozammel Shinwari said his country has the potential to become a major transit point for South Asian region.
