Saarc Slides

SAARC(South Asian Association for

Regional Cooperation)

Aim Behind Creation Of SAARC

• A platform

• Process of economic and social development in member state.

Salient Features

SAARC has following salient features: • most ancient living civilization• sleeping giant• all religions, faiths, and ideologies• a common market called sapta and later safta. • largest irrigated land areas - 67 million hectares.• second largest railway network • largest english speaking areas

History of SAARC

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organization of eight countries in

Southern Asia. In terms of population, its sphere of influence is the largest of any regional organization: almost 1.5 billion people, the

combined population of its member states. In the late 1970s, Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman proposed the

creation of a trade bloc consisting of South Asian countries. The Bangladeshi proposal was accepted by India, Pakistan and

Sri Lanka during a meeting held in Colombo in 1981. In August 1983, the leaders adopted the Declaration on South Asian Regional

Cooperation during a summit which was held in New Delhi. The seven South Asian countries, which also included Nepal, Maldives

and Bhutan, agreed on five areas of cooperation.Afghanistan was added to the regional grouping at the behest of India

on November 13, 2005, With the addition of Afghanistan, the total number of member states were raised to eight (8).

Basic Information About SAARC

Head quarters Khatmandu,Nepal

Membership 8 members,9 observers

Chairman Mahinda rajapaksa

Secretary general Sheel kanth sharma

Established Dec 8,1985

Total Area 5130,746 kmsquare

GDP US $ 4,074,031 MILLION

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Current members

• Afghanistan • Bangladesh • Bhutan • India • Maldives • Nepal • Pakistan• Sri Lanka

Observers

• Australia• China • European Union• Iran• Japan • Mauritiu • Myanmar (Burmas) • South Korea • United States

The SAARC Secretariat:

• Established in Kathmandu on 16 January 1987.

• To coordinate and monitor the implementation of SAARC activities.

• The Secretariat comprises:

-Secretary General,

-Seven Directors and

-The General Services Staff

  1996 1999 2000

Population 1.3 bn 1.3bn 1.4bn

Population Growth Annual % 1.9% 1.9%  

Life Expectancy   62.6  

GNI Per Capita ($) 410 440 460

GDP (Current $) 513.7 bn 581 bn 620.3 bn

GDP Growth 6.4 5.8  

Export of Goods and Services% of GDP

12.4 13.4 13.1

Import of Goods and Services

17.2 16.9 17.0

SAARC Statistics

Area of Cooperation

• Agriculture and Rural Development • Health and Population Activities • Women, Youth and Children • Environment and Forestry • Science and Technology and

Meteorology • Human Resources Development and • Transport.

Establishment of high level Working Groups in areas:

Information and Communications Technology

Biotechnology Intellectual Property Rights Tourism

• Energy

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Saarc members Imports (in thousands of $)

Exports (in thousands of $)

Per capita income (in dollars)per person

Pakistan $39.96 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

$19.22 billion (2009 est.)

2000

Srilanka $9.6 billion (2009 est.) $7 billion (2009 est.) 2500

Bhutan $320 million c.i.f. (2006)

$350 million f.o.b. (2006)

1000

Bangladesh $20.205 billion (2008) $18.36 billion (2009-2010)

1380

India $232.3 billion f.o.b (2009 est.)

$155 billion f.o.b (2009 est.)

1720

Maldives $567 million f.o.b. (2004)

$123 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Afghanistan $8.550 billion (2009) $2.128 billion (2009) 800

Nepal $3.229 billion f.o.b. (2008)

$868 million f.o.b 1100

SAARC Members, Their Per Year Imports, Exports And Per Capita

Income

SAARC Decades

1991-2000 SAARC Decade of the Girl Child

2001-2010 SAARC Decade of the Rights of the Child

SAARC summits

• 15 summits have been held

• 16th summit is scheduled to hold in Bhutan 2010.

SAARC AS ECONOMIC BLOCK

• Largest economic block

• To promote welfare

• Accelerate economic growth

• To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance

SAARC ACHIEVEMENTS

• Impressive growth rate above 7% in last two decades

• Achieving objectives by promoting and improving quality life through accelerated economic growth

• Creation of food bank having reserves of 241000 tons of rice and wheat

• Anti terrorism police force setup in Pakistan

Cont.

• Ideas to increase in litracy rate

• Improve the health of people

• Friendly relation with neighbouring countries

• Eliminate terrifs among the member estates

• Efforts to reduce poverty

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Designated SAARC Years1989 SAARC Year of Combating Drug Abuse & Drug Trafficking

1990 SAARC Year of Girl Child

1991 SAARC Year of Shelter

1992 SAARC Year of Environment

1993 SAARC Year of Disabled Persons

1994 SAARC Year of the Youth

1995 SAARC Year of Poverty Eradication

1996 SAARC Year of Literacy

1997 SAARC Year of Participatory Governance

1999 SAARC Year of Biodiversity

02-03 SAARC Year of Contribution of Youth to Environment

2004 SAARC Awareness Year for TB and HIV/AIDS

2006 South Asia Tourism Year

SAARC Lacking And Fault Lines

SAARC Lacking

• Lack of Political will

• Ineffectiveness of SAARC headquarters

• Cost of doing business in the region is very high.

• The productivity per worker is low

Saarc represents only

23 percent of the world population

Share only 2.5 percent of world gross

national income (1,339 billion US$).

Its Average per capita income at US$

880 is only 11 percent of the world average of US$ 7,995.

Saarc represents only

• Total external trade of the region amounts 1.6 percent of the world trade

• 1.4 percent of the world exports • 1.8 percent of world imports.

• Its Intra-regional exchanges represent only 4 percent regional trade - 5.3 percent (exports) and 4.8 percent (imports

SAARC Fault Lines

SAARC countries as a bloc remained least integrated with the world and deprived themselves from the global changes

Lack of technological knowledge and skill-base to become competitive in the global market.

Conservative nature Lack of ownership of SAARC at the official

level

Why SAARC Has Been a Disappointment

Social indicators Political factors

Economic factors

Social indicators

PovertyEducation

natural disastersIndia’s workforce size

Political factors

India and Pakistan systemic differences

military conflict

Economic factors

Ineffective tradeGDP imbalancetrade imbalance

Demographics and Social Indicators

• Although real wages are growing, poverty still remains problem, because it impedes commercial stability nationally and within the trade bloc.

• Wages are low among SAARC countries.

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How to Make SAARC Work

• social tool to solve regional disputes social tool to solve regional disputes

• Establishment of political stability Establishment of political stability

• substitute of good productionsubstitute of good production

• ways to offset India’s large size ways to offset India’s large size

• Mediating roleMediating role

• Lofty goalsLofty goals

• Increment in FDIIncrement in FDI

How to Make SAARC Work (Cont.)

• Reducing inequality gaps Reducing inequality gaps

• Using SAFTA for regional Using SAFTA for regional agreementsagreements

• Improving infrastructure Improving infrastructure

• Natural disaster aid efforts Natural disaster aid efforts

• Diversification of export goods Diversification of export goods

Comparison Of SAARC With Other Economic Blocks

• Modest Modest

• Diversified Diversified

• Largest geo-economic block Largest geo-economic block

• Amalgamation of states Amalgamation of states

Impact Of SAARC On Pakistan’s Economy

Conclusion