Executive Committee member of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Zubair Ahamed Malik speaking to a national newspaper said that despite having one fifth of the world population, the SAARC remains a chamber where inter regional trade is at a very low ebb.

The SAARC Region is full of high mineral and oil assets, agricultural and aqua resources and also high industrial manufacturing to world standards but trade among the region is far below potential. The SAARC countries also though situated in close proximity to each country have diversified resources and manufacturing.Though the region also has good air and sea connectivity, several FTA's among member countries, the intra-regional trade is around 6%.

In contrast European Union Intra trade is around 60% and even in the ASEAN region it's around 23%.

"I think the main reason is non-tariff barriers and also may be a lack of a common currency for SAARC which have been talked about for over a decade.Though a common currency and visa free travel to the region (like EU and ASEAN VIS) may take a longer time to materialise, Chambers can influence governments to look at relaxing NTB.

"We believe that formation of the SAARC NTB international desk will be one area it could put pressure on Chambers and governments to work towards a region with minimum NTBs. "We have drawn up legislation and we hope to start the NTB desk after selection members representing all member countries by mid this year. (CDN)