Assignment on

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

and its Achievements
Submitted to
Prof. Dr. Mughees Ahmed
Submitted by
Nabila Faryad Ali
Roll No 3501
MS. Political Science
Dept. Political Science and IR

Im ag ersu ltfo rg cu flo g o

Govt College University Faisalabad

Contents:
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Objectives
3. Principles
4. General Provisions
5. Organizational structure
6. Its achievements
Conclusion
Reference

Abstract
In the face of increasing importance of regionalism, SAARC stands unavoidable and significant
organization in South Asia. Since its formation in 1985, it has played an important role by
bringing the member countries closer together by holding various meetings and summits at
various levels. Though overall development of this organization is marred by internal disputes
and various other factors but still its establishment and the sense to develop regional integration
has created a hope for its future progress. This research paper analyzes the role of SAARC. A
critical evaluation has also been made of why SAARC has not been able to develop at par with
other developed organizations like European Union (EU). The potential areas of cooperation
have been pointed out and suggestions have been put forwarded for removing the existent
hurdles and to move the wheel of integration in South Asia more fastly for improving the
conditions of poor people in this region.
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
And
Its Achievements
Introduction:
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) comprises the seven countries
of South Asia, i.e. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is
an Association based on the consciousness that in an increasingly independent world, the
objectives of peace, freedom, social justice and economic prosperity are best achieved in the
South Asian region by fostering mutual understanding, good neighborly relations and meaningful
cooperation among the Member States which are bound by ties of history and culture. The idea
of regional cooperation in South Asia was first mooted in November 1980. After consultations,
the Foreign Secretaries of seven countries met for the first time in Colombo in April 1981. This
was followed up, a few months later, by a meeting of the Committee of the Whole, which
identified five broad areas for regional cooperation. The Foreign Ministers, at their first meeting
in New Delhi in August 1983, adopted the Declaration on South Asian Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) and formally launched the Integrated Programme of Action (IPA) initially in five
agreed areas of Cooperation namely, Agriculture; Rural Development; Telecommunications;
Meteorology, and Health and Population. Scientific and Technological Cooperation; Sports, Arts
and Culture were added to the IPA at a later stage. The Heads of State of Government at their
First SAARC Summit held in Dhaka on 7-8 December 1985 adopted the Charter formally
establishing the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Objectives:
The objectives, principles and general provisions as mentioned in the SAARC Charter are as
follows::
7. To promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life;
8. 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;
9. To promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia;
10. To contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s problems;
11. To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural
technical and scientific fields;
12. To strengthen cooperation with other developing countries;
13. To strengthen cooperation among themselves in international forums on matters of
common interests; and
14. To cooperate with international and regional organisations with similar aims and
 purposes.
Principles:
15. Cooperation within the framework of the Association is based on respect for the
principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence, non-
interference in the internal affairs of other States and mutual benefit.
16. Such cooperation is to complement and not to substitute bilateral or multilateral
cooperation.
17. Such cooperation should be consistent with bilateral and multilateral obligations of
Member States.
General Provisions:
18. Decisions at all levels in SAARC shall be taken on the basis of unanimity;
19. Bilateral and contentious issues shall be excluded from the deliberations of the
Association.
Organizational Structure of SAARC:
The Charter of the Association provides for the following:
1.The Summit:
The highest authority of the Association rests with the Heads of State or Government, who meet
annually at Summit level. To date, eleven meetings of the Heads of State or Government have
been held respectively in Dhaka (1985), Bangalore (1986), Kathmandu (1987), Islamabad
(1988), Male (1990), Colombo (1991), Dhaka (1993) New Delhi (1995), and Male (1997),
Colombo (1998) and Kathmandu (2002).
The Heads of State or Government during the Ninth SAARC Summit agreed that a process of
informal political consultations would prove useful in promoting peace, stability and amity and
accelerated socio-economic cooperation in the region. This was further reiterated at the Tenth
SAARC Summit.
2.The Council of Ministers:
The Council of Ministers, which comprises the Foreign Ministers of Member States, is
responsible for formulating policies, reviewing progress, deciding on new areas of cooperation,
establishing additional mechanisms as deemed necessary and deciding on other matters of
general interest to the Association.
The Council is expected to meet twice a year and may also meet in extraordinary session by
agreement of the Member States. Informal meetings of the Council are also held as agreed during
the Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.
3.The Standing Committee:
The Standing Committee comprising the Foreign Secretaries of Member States is entrusted with
the task of overall monitoring and coordination of programmes; the approval of projects and
programmes and the modalities of financing; determining inter-sectoral priorities; mobilizing
regional and external resources; and identifying new areas of cooperation. It meets as often as
deemed necessary and submits its reports to the Council of Ministers.
The Standing Committee may also set up Action Committees comprising of Member States
concerned with implementation of projects involving more than two Member States. The
Standing Committee is assisted by a Programming Committee. The Programming Committee,
which comprises senior officials, is responsible for scrutinizing the Secretariat Budget, finalizing
the Calendar of Activities, and taking any other matter assigned to it by the Standing Committee.
The Programming Committee has also been entrusted to consider and submit to the Standing
Committee, recommendations for action on the Reports of the Technical Committees, SAARC
Regional Centres and the SAARC Audio Visual Exchange (SAVE) Committee.

4.Programming Committee:
Comprising the senior officials meets prior to the Standing Committee sessions to scrutinize
Secretariat Budget, finalise the Calendar of Activities and take up any other matter assigned to it
by the Standing Committee.
5. Technical Committees:
Comprising representatives of member states, formulate programmes and prepare projects in
their respective fields. They are responsible for monitoring the implementation of such activities
and report to the Standing Committee. The chairmanship of each Technical Committee normally
rotates among member countries in alphabetical order, every two years.
6. Action Committees:
According to the SAARC Charter, there is a provision for Action Committees comprising
member states concerned with implementation of projects involving more than two, but not all
member states. At present, there are no such Action Committees.
7. SAARC secretariat
Established in Kathmandu on 16 January 1987, the SAARC Secretariat is responsible to
coordinate and monitor the implementation of SAARC activities, service the meetings of the
Association and serve as the channel of communication between SAARC and other international
organizations.
The Secretariat comprises of the Secretary-General, a Director from each member state and the
General Services Staff. The Secretary-General is appointed by the Council of Ministers upon
nomination by a member state, on the principle of rotation in alphabetical order, for a period of
two years.
Directors are appointed by the Secretary-General, upon nomination by member states for a
period of three years which, in special circumstances, may be extended by the Secretary-General
for a period not exceeding another full term, in consultation with the member state concerned.

Its Achievements:
In the past twenty six years, SAARC has made tremendous improvement owing to the
interaction and cooperative efforts being put in by the member states. The progress and
development of SAARC during the recent years can be looked at under the following headings:
1. Substantial Increase in Cooperation:
Since the formation of SAARC in 1985, the level of cooperation among the member countries
increased substantially. SAARC was established with the objective of improving the living
standards of the people, cultural and regional economic growth and increasing cooperation with
other regions of the world. During the recent years, realizing the importance of regional
cooperation and development, SAARC members have now created a sense of accelerating
regional economic development and they advocate revival of the organization by moving from
just the issuance of declarations to practical implementation of the plans and policies to turn this
weak region into a potentially developed one. This recognition has led towards increasing the
pace of cooperation among the member countries.
2. Economic and Trade Discussions:
For the success of SAARC, economic and trade cooperation is very much important and in fact
the first thing to be focused on for the development of South Asia. Many years of discussions
have at least established the bases of cooperation in this particular area. During the 1990s,
SAARC discussed the Preferential Trading Area (SAPTA) among the member countries which
was materialized in the shape of Free Trade Agreement which is now known as South Asian Free
Trade Area (SAFTA).According to this agreement, the tariff reduction plan was chalked out and
since 2006, this reduction had been carried out in two phases i.e Pakistan and India pledged to
put tariffs on all the goods down to twenty percent within two years and all other countries to
thirty percent within three years.v While in the second phase, Pakistan and India decided to put
the tariffs on goods down to 0-5 percent within five years and other members of the organization
within seven years. Though the initiatives taken to trade freely in the region has encountered a lot
of problem but still we cannot ignore that the member countries are proceeding ahead with their
plans to improve the regional growth and cooperation.
3. Increase in External Support/Cooperation with Observers:
It is worth mentioning that being a poor region, SAARC countries cannot develop each and
every aspect of their economies alone. They are in need of support and assistance in capital,
resources, education and technology from the more developed regions and individual countries.
One of the positive points in the recent years has been the interest of the other developed
countries in SAARC who want to provide help in social and economic fields. The member
countries have reached the conclusion during the recent years that they would welcome any
assistance from the observer countries and being observers, USA, Japan, China, South Korea,
Iran and EU are willing to provide support e.g Japan has clearly offered help in social
infrastructure development and disaster management, China offered donation to South Asian
Development Fund and the recent support has also come from China to run the China-South Asia
Business Forum. SAARC has established institutionalized arrangements for cooperation with a
number of other regional groupings and international and regional organizations. SAARC has
also been in the process of making agreements and MOUs with other regional and international
organizations like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD),United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), Asia Pacific Telecommunity
(APT), United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF). This external support
gives a boost to the aims and objective of SAARC to move forward for the better future in the
social and economic fields and it is also a good opportunity for the members to develop inter-
state cooperation within South Asia.
4. Cooperation on Security and Terrorism:
The SAARC Convention on suppression of Terrorism was signed in 1987 and later the
Additional Protocol on Terrorism was signed taking into account the terrorist financing structure.
This was in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1373. The Additional Protocol on
Terrorism was adopted in 2005 after much debate and discussion on the definition of terrorism.
In spite of these two important documents on terrorism, there has not been much enthusiasm to
cooperate on issues of terrorist violence and funding between the member countries. Cooperation
has been confined to bilateral initiatives.ix SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk
(STOMD), Colombo, Sri Lanka SAARC Drug Offences Monitoring Desk (SDOMD), Colombo,
Sri Lanka
5. Focus on Youth:
It is a fact that in most of the developing countries, youth is ignored. Although youth forms an
important part of development for any nation but still they are not consulted to while taking
important policy decisions. Given the sensible bracket of age within which young people fall,
they are highly risk taking and in case of no opportunities for progress, they even become the
cause of governments fall. SAARC members have all an increasing rate of the young population
and they must be made the center of attention which SAARC has considered upon. The SAARC
Youth Award is awarded to outstanding individuals from the SAARC region. The award is
notable due to the recognition it gives to the Award winner in the SAARC region. The award is
based on specific themes which apply to each year. The award recognizes and promotes the
commitment and talent of the youth who give back to the world at large through various
initiatives such as Inventions,x Protection of the Environment and Disaster relief.
6. Poverty Eradication:
As one of the poorest regions of the world, it is one of the most important priorities of SAARC to
give attention to this main objective of poverty alleviation. The total population of SAARC eight
members is over 1.6 billion and forty percent of this population is living below the poverty line.
The illiteracy rate is about or even more than 50 percent. The task is not very easy but with
conviction and vision for stable regional cooperation, this aim can be achieved.
7. Financial Cooperation:
The Meetings of the Finance Ministers of SAARC is an important feature of SAARC agenda.
Till now, four Meetings of the Finance Ministers of SAARC have been held in Pakistan (July 11,
2006), India (September 15, 2007), Maldives (May 14, 2009) and Bhutan (August 24, 2010). The
First Meeting of SAARC Finance Ministers confirmed the establishment of an Inter
Governmental Expert Group on Financial matters including development of the roadmap for
achieving the South Asian Economic Union (SAEU) in a phased manner. The Member States are
in the process of exchanging Concept Papers in the area of finance. A SAARC Expert Group on
Development of Capital Markets in South Asia was also held at the SAARC Secretariat on
December 27, 2011 as recommended by the SAARC Finance Ministers.Sixth meeting of Inter
Governmental Expert Group on Financial issues took place at SAARC Secretariat on 23-24
April, 2013. The Seventh informal meeting of SAARC Finance Ministers took place in New
Delhi on May 3, 2013 and Progress is being made in the positive direction regarding financial
cooperation while considering and opening new doors for cooperation.

Conclusion:
Though the formation of SAARC is a landmark step taken by the leaders of the region, the main
rationale behind its establishment is to develop a conducive environment where all nations may
interact peacefully with each other, cultivate sustainable peace and promote mutual economic
well-being by utilizing available resources in the region through the peaceful process of
economic cooperation. Nevertheless, after more than two decades of its establishment, neither
South Asian nations have been able to push the process of integration into full swing nor the
organization itself has become viable enough to promote harmony and economic integration for
preventing conflicts in the region. Everything with SAARC is not gloomy. Infact, the
establishment of this important organization is the proof that the regional neighbors want to
achieve progress and, in fact, under the IPA, the member countries have been cooperating in
various social, economic and security fields. The people of South Asia cannot be ignorant of the
lost opportunities for their own prosperity and welfare. Indeed, they are well aware of the
advantages of closer cooperation between the nations of South Asia. It is, therefore, time to
reinvent the wheel of South Asian identity through increased citizen activism, which will lead to
a better environment for confidence-building among the formal elites of South Asia and in turn
lead to a better South Asia.

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