The South Asian countries should step up their efforts for regional integration to create new economic opportunities, foster markets and promote trade & exports which will usher in prosperity and stability in the region. This was stated by Zahid Maqbool, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry in a meeting at ICCI.

He said South Asian countries including Pakistan are endowed with plenty of natural and human resources. However, they need greater regional integration to exploit these resources for achieving better economic development.

He said other countries are strengthening their economies by promoting regional integration and South Asia should also focus on this pattern to tackle the problems of poverty, unemployment and many other ills connected with underdevelopment.

He said intra-Asean trade in 2008 was US$ 453-billion representing about 27% of Asean’s external trade. Similarly trade of NAFTA, a regional block of only three countries comprising USA, Canada and Mexico, was US$   1-trillion in 2007. But compared to these impressive results, the share of intra-Saarc trade in 2008 was just 4.31 percent of its total trade while the region has great potential to improve it.

Zahid Maqbool said the South Asian countries should explore more trade opportunities within the region and should facilitate intraregional trade in order to stabilize their economies. He said exploring opportunities to expand intraregional trade would give South Asia greater chances to not only benefit from trade but also increase stability against external shocks.

He said though South Asia has been engaged in trade with the major industrialized countries like EU, USA and Japan. But distances from these major markets impose significantly higher transport costs for exporters in South Asia. Therefore, the region stands to gain significantly by expanding intraregional trade for which barriers to trade should be addressed.

He said South Asia should encourage its entrepreneurs and businessmen to play a leading role in promoting economic cooperation and help build a climate of mutual trust and confidence. He said by promoting regional integration, the South Asian countries can swim and smoothly tide over all obstacles coming in way of their development and fast growth.