ABSTRACT

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
RESTRUCTURING OF SAARC

Nihal Rodrigo

 

Areas of regional cooperation being promoted by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have multiplied since its inception, expanding in technical complexity as well as reach beyond South Asia. An intricate network of institutional structures has ensued. Apart from the Secretariat in Katmandu, these include, inter alia, 10 Regional Centers spread out across the region to promote specialized areas of activity. Subject to periodic reviews to assess efficacy in mandate implementation, the performance of some SAARC Commissions, Working Groups, Technical Committees and Regional Centers has not always matched high expectations. The SAARC Secretariat itself, beyond basing its own staff recruitment in Katmandu primarily to ensure equal representation of all member-states, could be further augmented by infusing required expert personnel into its structure as SAARC functions expand.

Factors beyond institutional and staffing aspects need also to be considered including decision-making processes in any restructuring exercise. With increasing connectivity in SAARC, there is a need to regularly monitor coordination, continuity and cohesion in project implementation.

Progress on the 1998 Road Map for SAARC to move, through progressive integration, towards an Economic Union, has been slow given national and regional asymmetries and the volatility of member-states’ bilateral relations. The Asian Development Bank describes SAARC as the least integrated regional grouping with intra-regional trade at 5.5% of its global trade. Causes listed include poor land, sea and air connectivity; convoluted border-crossing procedures; limited state-public partnerships; and high protectionism in its Free Trade Agreement. SAARC activity in the economic sector could see greater progress through closer engagement with the region’s corporate sector. The South Asian Economic Summits in Colombo (2008) and in New Delhi (2009) held in association with the corporate sector, with some restructuring, could prove productive. Acceptable consultative mechanisms with some of the “SAARC-recognized” professional and civil society organizations need also to be structured into the Association. The formulation of the SAARC Social Charter, for example, has benefited by such interactions.

SAARC is now taking on extra-regional linkages following the Colombo Summit approving Guidelines for cooperation with Observers, China, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Mauritius, the US and EU. This could help SAARC exert its role on global items such as the environment, global warming, energy /food shortages, and trade issues. Informed structures to discuss these items to safeguard regional interests need to be developed. Acceptable project-based cooperation with Observers, including contributions to the SAARC Development Fund could be promoted. Beyond economic aspects, the impact of cross-border terrorism, the illegal arms trade, people smuggling and drug-trafficking, could also be countered through structures for global reach.

• Paper presented in a two-day regional workshop on Restructuring of SAARC organized by the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation Islamabad on March 30-31, 2010.
• Former Secretary General, South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
  

 

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