Urging SAARC nations to leave behind their past differences Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday stressed on greater connectivity and doing away with unnecessary hurdles that impede development of the region.
"Today, less than five percent of the region's global trade take place between us; even at this modest level, less than ten percent of the region's internal trade takes place under SAARC area. Indian companies are investing billions abroad, but less than one percent flow into our region. It is still harder to travel within our region than to Bangkok or Singapore and more expensive to speak to each other. How much have we done in SAARC to turn our natural wealth into shared prosperity or our borders into bridgeheads to a shared future?" Prime Minister Modi asked.
Talking about India's links with each of the SAARC nations, he said, "South Asia is slowly coming together; India and Bangladesh had deepened their links through rail, road and power. India and Nepal have started a new era of co-operation in energy, and India and Bhutan are making those ties stronger by the day, with Sri Lanka we have transformed trade through a free trade agreement, we will soon launch a new arrangement to meet Maldives' need for oil. Distance and difficulties have not held back India and Afghanistan, and bus and train sustain contacts between people in India and Pakistan."
"We have given five South Asian partners duty free access to 99.7 percent of their goods and are prepared to do more. For India it has been a privilege to provide assistance of nearly eight billion US dollars in South Asia over a decade. It may not seem a great amount in these times, but we are grateful for the opportunity to have made a difference to the lives of a few brothers and sisters in our region. Each of us has taken initiatives however, at SAARC we have failed to move with the speed that our people expect and want," he said.
On doing away with hurdles in the region which deprive the eight member grouping to avail opportunities, Prime Minister said, "Some argue that it is because of the region's development gap but that should actually spur us to do more or is it because we are stuck behind the walls of our differences and hesitant to move out of the shadows of the past. This would not resolve our differences, but will certainly deprive us of opportunities. Today, goods travel from one Punjab to another Punjab through Delhi, Mumbai, Dubai and Karachi, making the journey eleven times longer and the cost four times more."
While acknowledging that India because of its location has to take the lead in doing away with bottlenecks in freer movement of goods in SAARC, Prime Minister said, "India too has its share of responsibility because of our size and, location. I know that many of your goods too have to do a parikrama of India to reach their destinations. Just think of what we are doing to our consumers and to our environment. We must think of the distance between our producers and consumers and use the most direct routes of trade. I know India has to lead and we will do our part. I hope each of you will do.
