BBIN expert urge to implement SAARC decisions

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 PPD was organized last week in Dhaka of Bangladesh by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) in collaboration with the SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry  (SAARC CCI) and The Asia Foundation.

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.