This presentation is over South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation ( SAARC) which is an organization of South Asian nations, established on 8 December 1985 and dedicated to economic, technological, social, and cultural development emphasizing collective self-reliance.
2. It stands for South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation.
It is an organization of South Asian nations,
founded in 8 December 1985 and dedicated to
economic, technological, social, and cultural
development emphasizing collective self-
reliance.
3. There were seven countries who founded this
association ; they were Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri
Lanka and later in year 2005 Afghanistan also
took membership.
Meetings of heads of state are usually held
annually and meetings of foreign secretaries are
scheduled twice in a year.
SAARC has its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal.
4. There are several areas of cooperation namely
agriculture, education, culture, and sports,
health, population, and child welfare, the
environment and meteorology; rural
development (including the SAARC Youth
Volunteers Program) tourism, transport,
science and technology and communications.
5. to
contribute
to mutual
trust,
understandi
ng and
appreciation
of one
another's
problems
to promote
and
strengthen
collective
self-reliance
among the
countries of
South Asia;
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 realize their
full potential
to
promote
the
welfare of
the people
of South
Asia and
to improve
their
quality of
life;
6. to promote
active
collaboration
and mutual
assistance in
the economic,
social, cultural,
technical and
scientific fields
to cooperate
with
international
and regional
organisations
with similar
aims and
purposes.
to strengthen
cooperation
with other
developing
countries
to strengthen
cooperation
among
themselves in
international
forums on
matters of
common
interest
7. SAFTA AGREEMENT
The Agreement on the South Asian Free Trade Area
is an agreement reached at the 12th SAARC summit
at Islamabad, capital of Pakistan on 6 January 2004.
It creates a framework for the creation of a free trade
area covering 1.6 billion people in India, Pakistan,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the
Maldives . The seven foreign ministers of the region
signed a framework agreement on SAFTA with zero
customs duty on the trade of practically all products.
SAFTA, came into enforcement on 1 January 2006
and has been operational following the ratification
of the agreement by the seven governments.
8. PRINCIPLES OF SAARC
• Respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, political
equality and independence of all members states
• Non-interference in the internal matters is one of its
objectives
• Cooperation for mutual benefit
• All decisions to be taken unanimously and need a
quorum of all eight members
• All bilateral issues to be kept aside and only
multilateral(involving many countries) issues to be
discussed without being prejudiced by bilateral issues
9. Continued…
SAFTA required the developing countries in South Asia,
that is, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to bring their
duties down to 20 percent in the first phase of the two
year period ending in 2007.
In the final five year phase ending 2012, the 20 percent
duty was reduced to zero in a series of annual cuts.
The least developed nations in South Asia consisting of
Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives have an
additional three years concession to reduce tariffs to
zero. India and Pakistan have signed but not ratified
the treaty.
10. Countries which have shown interest to be a
part of SAARC:
o China( Observer to full member)
o Indonesia (currently Observer)
o Iran (currently Observer)
o Russia (Interested in being observer)
o Myanmar (currently Observer)
o South Africa (participated in meetings)
