New Indian govt expected to boost Saarc trade

FE Team | Published: May 26, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

NEW DELHI, May 25 (BSS): The Narendra Modi-led new government of India is looking to economically integrate the South Asian 1.6 billion people.
Currently, India runs a big $15-billion trade surplus with other Saarc countries, with exports worth $17.5 billion and imports worth just $2.5 billion.
The idea is to correct this skewed trading system in a way that Indian businesses can source more from other Saarc countries and build better value chains.
The commerce ministry is putting together a plan to deepen trade and investment ties with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries.
Noting that security concerns have been holding back the economic integration of the region, a senior official involved in the formulation of the new strategy has told a local news paper that the core of this plan is "free movement of goods, people and voice (by allowing easier usage of SIM cards of member countries in each other's territory)".
The aim is to ensure that the next Saarc summit in Nepal, likely in October-November, is a landmark one in inking pacts on game-changing proposals including a Saarc visa system similar to the European Union's Schengen visa as well as a South Asian Development Bank.
The bank is being considered with an initial corpus of $5-10 billion. This will be used for ensuring better connectivity by building railway lines, roads, waterways, ports and customs stations.
For better people-to-people ties, the proposal is to set up a Saarc visa regime envisaging liberal multi-entry visas like the European Union's Schengen visa system to make sure all citizens of the Saarc member countries can move freely in South Asia.
Currently, there is a Saarc Visa Exemption Scheme, in which some categories of people (including higher court judges, businesspersons, parliamentarians, journalists, senior officials and sportsmen) are given a Special Travel document that exempts them from visas within the region. This arrangement will now be reworked to promote tourism (including medical tourism) and trade within the region.
The member countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.