2. The South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) was formed in December 1985.
It is an organization of south Asian countries which
includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and sir Lanka. Afghanistan joined the
organization in 2005. Purpose of the organization is
collective economic, technical, social, and cultural
development of member states.
The Headquarter of SAARC is in Kathmandu,
Nepal.
3.
4. to promote the welfare of the people of South Asia and
to improve their quality of life;
to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural
development in the region and to provide all individuals the
opportunity to live in dignity and to realise their full potential ;
to promote and strengthen selective self-reliance
among the countries of South Asia;
to contribute to mutual trust, understanding
and appreciation of one another's problems;
5. to promote active collaboration and mutual
assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical
and scientific fields;
to strengthen co-operation with other
developing countries;
to strengthen co-operation among themselves
in international forums on matters of common
interest; and
to maintain peace in the region
to co-operate with international and regional
organisations with similar aims and purposes.
6. The Agreement on SAARC Preferential trading
Arrangement (SAPTA) was signed on 11 April 1993 and
entered into force on 7 December 1995, with the desire of
the Member States of SAARC (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri
Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives to promote and
sustain mutual trade and economic cooperation within the
SAARC region through the exchange of concessions.
7. The establishment of an Inter-Governmental Group (IGG)
to formulate an agreement to establish a SAPTA by 1997 was
approved in the Sixth Summit of SAARC held in Colombo in
December 1991.
The basic principles underlying SAPTA are as under;
Overall reciprocity and mutuality of advantages so as to
benefit equitably all Contracting States, taking into account
their respective level of economic and industrial development,
the pattern of their external trade, and trade and tariff
policies and systems;
Negotiation of tariff reform step by step, improved and
extended in successive stages through periodic reviews;
8. Reorganization of the special needs of
the least developed contracting
states and agreement on concrete
preferential measures in their favour;
Inclusion of all products ,
manufacturers and commodities in
their raw, semi-processed and
processed forms.
9. The South Asian Free Trade Area or SAFTA is an agreement
reached on 6 January 2004 at the 12th SAARC summit in
Islamabad, Pakistan.
It created a free trade area of 1.6 billion people
in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka (as of 2011, the combined population is 1.8 billion people).
The seven foreign ministers of the region signed a framework
agreement on SAFTA to reduce customs duties of all
traded goods to zero by the year 2016.
