Better connectivity may boost trade

“Visas should not be a paranoid. After all, we all are the same people from the same region,” said Bathija who was in Dhaka to attend the fourth South Asia Economic Summit orgnaised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue. South Asia is the least integrated region in the world with intra-regional trade at less than 5 percent
South Asia has tremendous potential. One day it will shine and dominate. The potential can be realised in the shortest possible time by cementing business-to-business and people-to-people connectivity.
“Things will move fast if business-to-business connectivity increases,” Sham L Bathija, senior economic adviser to the president of Afghanistan, told The Daily Star in an interview recently.
“Visas should not be a paranoid. After all, we all are the same people from the same region,” said Bathija who was in Dhaka to attend the fourth South Asia Economic Summit orgnaised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
South Asia is the least integrated region in the world with intra-regional trade at less than 5 percent.
The Afghan economic adviser said Bangladesh produces billions of dollars of garments a year but imports only 18 percent yarn from South Asia.
“If the business community sits and interacts with each other, regional relations will be facilitated,” says Bathija.
The land-locked Afghanistan, which is facing internal conflicts, is the latest entrant to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). The country was ruled by the religion extremist Taliban, before an interim government led by Hamid Karzai assumed power in December 2001.
Under democratic rule, the country, bestowed with mineral resources from oil-natural gas-copper and gold, is growing at an amazing rate of 16-18 percent a year and per capita income rose to $600 now from $150 under Taliban regime.
“Afghanistan is hopefully going to become a new, emerging and frontier market,” says Bathija.
As a new comer to Saarc, the senior economic adviser feels Afghanistan has a lot more to receive from the regional bloc.
“We feel that we'll benefit from expertise, capacity building and the technical know-how of member countries,” he says.
He discussed outcomes of Saarc so far, the imminent summit to be held in Maldives next month, disputes between India and Pakistan, fear of terrorism and the benefits of economic integration in South Asia, a region that accounts for 15 percent of the world's GDP and home to 20 percent of world population.
On the achievements of Saarc, he says, “I look at it as the glass half-full.”
“South Asia will shine one day. Within Saarc, there is tremendous potential.”
“We have shortcomings, but goodwill is there,” Bathija said.
Commenting on the Saarc summit to be held in the Maldives in November, he said the underlying issue of this year's event is integration.
“Many small elements will come into the integration issue. I believe goodwill of all the member states will remove all these small elements to integration.” He said Afghan President Hamid Karzai is deeply committed to Saarc.
On rivalry and bitter relations between India and Pakistan that are believed to be barriers to an effective Saarc, Bathija says things are moving now.
On disputes between India and Pakistan, he advises the two nations to sit together to resolve bilateral issues.

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