The two-day
Public-Private-Dialogue (PPD) on Promoting trade in BBIN, a SAARC sub-regional
group that includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, called for reforming
the SAARC charter to allow for legally binding compulsion for the member states
to implement decisions taken by SAARC bodies.
Businesspersons, civil society
members and government officials of BBIN proposed to reform the SAARC charter
as various decisions made by the SAARC bodies were not implemented.
The PPD asked for the engagement
of political elites through policy advocacy to effectively advance the agenda
of regional integration, read the final report of the two-day workshop, which
was published Friday.
The experts called for greater
regional trade integration in South Asia , and
urged the four nations for increased movement of people and goods across the
border.
Saying that it was impossible
for any neighbour to grow alone, the experts underscored that need to minimize
obstacles in trade in the sub-region as the custom clearance issues were
paramount.
“Visa regime should be reformed
in order to make BBIN effective, allowing cross border traffice of people, as
well as goods and vehicle,” read the report.
Citing the small size of
intra-regional trade in the South Asia , the
PPD recommended to review the SAFTA sensitive list, and the rulef of origin
criteria in order to identify realistic trade interests of the member
countries.
The SAARC has only 5 per cent
trade within the region while the largest member India trades less than 1 per cent
in the region.
In addition to the development
of common SAARC ‘quality standards’, there was a need for capaity building on
‘conformity’ assessment as well, PPD suggested the BBIN.
The workshop also suggested to
develop Standard Operating Procedures for port operations at BBIN and in South Asia and consider regional dimension while
developing national level planning.
Shaquib Quoreshi, Secretary of MCCI, said that such PPD
would help to understand the cross border issues in the region and the
recommendations of the workshop would be useful for the policy makers.
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