South Asian free Media Association, especially SAFMA Bangladesh and the renowned experts who made a valuable contribution, deserves appreciation of media and our people in mapping out a road for regional cooperation. South Asia is now booming with the ideas of regional cooperation Significant sections of intelligentsia, economists, experts, journalists and peace activists have begun to take a holistic approach towards the collective good of the region as they increasingly find state-centric and security-centered approaches inconsistent with the interest of our people.

The landmark agreements reached at the 12th Summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), at Islamabad, have spurred efforts at collectively tackling the real issues faced by the people while meeting the demands of globalisation and the WTO regime at the regional level.

The agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) requires effective implementation, expanding the space for trade and, more importantly, economic collaboration and development. If South Asia's economies are to be integrated, it presupposes development of transnational infrastructure and monetary cooperation involving greater coordination among the governments and central banks. In spite of limited complementarities in trade-able items, due to similar comparative advantages, expansion of trade warrants vertical and horizontal integration of industries and investment in joint ventures by public and private sectors. However, trade and investment will not move ahead unless tariffs are lowered, as envisaged by SAPTA, the negative-list kept to the minimum, para and non-tariff barriers removed and standards harmonized. This will, subsequently, translate into a customs union which may lead to a common exchange rate policy that will, eventually, result in adopting a common currency underwritten by macro-economic management at the regional level. No less important is the cooperation in the transport and communication sectors envisaging an integrated transport infrastructure that allows uninterrupted travel across and beyond our region and communication highways facilitating free flow of information.
Increasingly, the governments and concerned institutions are realizing the necessity to address acute shortage of energy and water, incidence of drought and floods that often bring miseries to the people and states into conflict. In this regard, energy cooperation should evolve into a common energy grid with integrated electricity and gas systems. If India and Pakistan agree, and they must, then gas and oil pipelines can run from Central Asia and Iran, through Pakistan and Afghanistan, to whole of South Asia and beyond. The distribution and management of water resources, though quite a divisive issue among the upper and lower riparian regions, needs to be undertaken amicably in the spirit of Indus Basin Treaty to the mutual benefit of the countries involved, without depriving the lower riparian regions of their due.

Given a lowest rate of investment to GDP ratio, South Asia must create attractive environment for investment in high value-added manufacturing lines and trans-regional projects. Enhanced investment flows, both from within and outside the region, would culminate in production facilities located across the region through integrated production systems. Shares of both national and regional companies would be quoted on our stock exchanges as capital moves without hindrance across national boundaries to underwrite investment in any part of our region through a South Asia Development Bank. However, economic cooperation, investment, development of transnational physical infrastructure, transportation, communication, energy grid, equitable sharing of water and efforts at poverty alleviation would not produce tangible results unless the concerns of low developed countries (LDCs) are genuinely addressed, the negative-list is minimized, tariffs are substantially brought down and non-tariff and para-tariff barriers lifted, the economies are gradually opened up with a recourse to investment-trade linkage that takes care of trade deficits between partners through investment flows and capital account, vertical and horizontal integration of industries that benefits from relative advantages and economies of scale.

To realize this immense economic transformation, interstate and intrastate conflicts and attendant security threats and perceptions of political hostility will have to be addressed. The main obstacle to regional cooperation and economic integration remains political and strategic. The prevailing barriers to cross-border movements make neither commercial nor logistical sense and originate in the pathologies of interstate, as well as domestic politics. Therefore, the political leadership in the countries of South Asia, whether in government or opposition, must show courage, flexibility and statesmanship to resolve interstate and intrastate conflicts and dismantle political barriers to regional economic takeoff and elimination of the scourge of poverty. They should get out of the straitjacket of enmity and look beyond the traditional notions of security and focus on an integrated and cooperative security that recognises interdependence that binds South Asia. The states ought to act in their enlightened self-interest to resolve their conflicts and differences through peaceful means and to the mutual benefit of our people. The choice is often, erroneously, posed between regional cooperation and conflict resolution. We urge all states to simultaneously move forward to address long-standing political disputes and intensify economic cooperation and people-to-people contact.

Beyond cooperative security, South Asian nations must ultimately move towards human security by placing people—their well-being and rights to peaceful life and development—at the centre of security concerns, rather than continuing with the arms race. To include the excluded, governments of South Asia take concrete steps to implement the SAARC Social Charter and give priority to poverty eradication. It is imperative for the South Asian countries to agree to a uniform human rights code and set up institutions under the Paris Principles and purposefully set about creating the required mechanisms. There is an urgent need to allow greater interaction among the policy-makers, parliamentarians, businessmen, media practitioners, professionals and the leaders of civil society. To enable it to happen, it is necessary that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who have most restrictive visa regimes, drastically revise their visa policy and remove impediments to free movement of people. To overcome information deficit about the countries of the region, it is essential that all restrictions on access to and free flow of information are removed forthwith and media persons and products are allowed free movement across frontiers. The media, on their part, should give special attention to coverage of the countries of South Asia that remain underreported.

The guidelines issued by SAFMA's conference on 'Regional Cooperation in South Asia', underline the urge of civil society to make South Asia a vibrant economic and social unit. They are based on the research done by leading scholars from our own region. The visionary statement in fact shows the people the future course for action to overcome maladies faced by the countries of the region and face up to the challenges posed by the 21st Century. The Protocol on free movement of journalists and media products across frontiers and proposed model law on information to the countries of the region need immediate approval by SAARC. Similarly, SAFMA's effort to convene Forum for South Asian Parliament, representing all major elected parties and legislatures, in March 2005, deserves support from all parliaments and parties in the region to set a new agenda for our collective well-being and progress. With media in the lead, conflicts can be resolved and the region can be set on the path to progress.

Imtiaz Alam,
Secretary General, SAFMA