The economic prospect of the region is enormous, with a potential market of almost a billion and a half and growing constantly. It is inexplicable that given the regional imperatives and the size of the market, that intra-regional trade has hovered between three and five percent annually so far, an appalling figure indeed.

The new arrangement one hopes would spearhead a greater volume of trade amongst the member countries of the region. Along with the increased market access the new arrangement would enhance by almost 1.6 times the volume of interregional trade.

For Bangladesh the dynamic of gains, because of the potential greater market access, could help in mitigating some of the unfavourable balance of trade between it and other regional countries. For, as of now, we export very little while being the largest regional importer, almost 37 percent of the total regional import. According to experts it will also divert a significant portion of illegal trade to the legal process.

However, there is the possibility that reduction in tariff barriers, which are already low in Bangladesh, may mean further revenue loss for us, but one hopes that it will be compensated by other means by the more affluent countries. But apart from the support of the more developed countries of the region we must ourselves initiate appropriate measures to offset any likely negative impacts of the free trade regime.

For a start we must expand our export base because without diversification of our exports very little of the promises that the new trade mechanism holds out can be fulfilled. We must also reduce our reliance on import by going for import substitution.

The new trading arrangements demonstrate the awareness of the countries of the region that only through enhanced regional economic cooperation can the lot of the people of the region be improved. Enhanced trade and economic cooperation also has one significant spin-off, it reduces the chances of conflict.

We must exploit its full potentials.