The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Speakers at a regional seminar here yesterday stressed the need for a 'SAFTA-Plus' agreement to promote intra-regional investment and service trade among the member countries of the SAARC.

'SAFTA-plus' agreement is needed to include regional cooperation mechanism in the area of investment, finance, service trade, trade facilitation and technology transfer as the existing South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) treaty should go beyond the mere agreement in 'trade in goods', they said.

The seminar 'SAFTA and Its Implication for the Member Countries' was organised by South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) at BRAC centre at Mohakhali here. Chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Professor Rehman Sobhan chaired the inaugural session while Executive Director of SANEM Dr Selim Raihan presented a keynote paper titled 'SAFTA and Bangladesh Economy'.

Ambassador to Commonwealth Secretariat in London Edwin Laurent, Senior Economist of World Bank Dr Ziadi Sattar and Professor of North South University AKM Atiqur Rahman also spoke, among others.

Dr Selim said, the existing SAFTA treaty is predominantly centred on 'trade in goods', which presumed that Bangladesh cannot hope for too much gain from the treaty to enhance its growth opportunities merely by promoting exports to the regional market.

"Maintaining the sensitive list for some of the critical products produced by India will not help Bangladesh to increase its export share within the South Asian countries," he observed.

Therefore a new agreement, may be named 'SAFTA-Plus' could enhance Bangladesh prospects for getting larger investment inflows from the more developed partner countries in the region, Dr Selim argued.

These investments, he said, whether 100 percent ownership by regional investors or joint ventures, should help improve the country's export supply capability and boost exports both to the region and to the outside world.