Sound regional cooperation is crucial for regional prosperity

By Tharanga Thilakasiri

The South Asian region is well known for its unique features such as its highly diversified cultures, its rich heritage and for its rich history of thousands years. Also, today South Asia has been identified as an upcoming or an emerging economic super power particularly in Asia and in the word as well.  

President Mahinda Rajapaksa with the Speaker of the Parliament of Pakistan Dr. Fehmida Mirza

The South Asia region of Asia continent comprises of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the total population around 1.5 billion, in other words, this region today comprises one-fifth of world population.

However, we can find that the most of these countries have more similarities with regard to their cultures, religions, beliefs, resources, issues, etc. Therefore, it’s not difficult to find solutions to solve most of such issues in this part of the world as they are almost similar in nature.

Today, Sri Lanka has managed to improve and maintain a sound relationship with her neighbouring countries. Especially the relationship with India and Pakistan has improved to a commendable stature and also we can see various bilateral agreements in progress and continue to date with lots of successes.

This fact was quite visible during the recently concluded 3rd Regional Conference of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA – Asia Regional) held in Colombo where I too could actively participate and interact with some of the dignitaries of regional countries. It was a great occasion or a great forum to discuss some of vital and common issues which are relating to our region and also to show the unity of our region to the rest of the word.

The Speakers of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka were in a same table discussing on various topics which are vital and relating to each other. It was a significant achievement and improvement as they could build up the confidence of solving our regional problems on our own.

Common issues of this region

There are numbers of common issues that are faced by each country in this region. These issues should be addressed in a proper manner before long. However, it is an uphill task for many countries as they do not possess an adequate amount of funds and ample resources to face those issues on their own.

Therefore, an implementation of collective effort to combat such common issues is required by the member countries of SAARC region which belong to this part of the world. Some of such common issues are:

nPoverty

nLack of healthcare facilities

nMalnutrition

nClimate changes

nIll-treated women and child

nChild labour

nPolitical instability

nCorruption

nViolation of human rights

Sri Lanka’s role in the region

During the CPA Conference, many countries highly commended various achievements of this island nation, especially Sri Lanka’s achievements on several UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG). This was highly commended by Dr. Fehmida Mirza, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan during her speech on ‘Mother and Child’.

She also went on to say that the Sri Lanka has achieved so many healthcare milestones and expressed that Sri Lanka is a role model for all other developing countries to follow suit. “If we succeed in building a strong, sustained and well-resourced community based on healthcare system, which does not only ensure safe deliveries through skilled midwives but which also nurtures ‘protected childhood’. This is precisely what our Sri Lankan friends have succeeded in doing in terms of safe motherhood and hence have become a proud example for all developing countries,” said Dr. Fehmida Mirza.

Furthermore, a number of distinguished delegates from other countries too expressed their happiness over crushing terrorism in Sri Lanka and making this gorgeous country one of the most peaceful and safest countries in the world. Equally, they have highly commended our recent economic progress as well.

Though we are a small nation, Sri Lanka has been recognised and respected as a role model for other regional countries in many aspects. But that doesn’t mean that we can rest now; we have to maintain such achievements on a continuous basis while taking appropriate measures to improve such achievements further.

India’s role in the region

Today, India and Sri Lanka have shown an enormous progress in economic and political relationships. Hence, they have set some good models for others to imitate by strengthening bilateral relations in many areas including, defence, trade, cultural, etc., and this has been encouraged due to the prevailing political stability between these two nations.

During the speech of Smt. Meira Kumar, the Speaker of Lok Sabha of Parliament of India — 3rd Regional Conference of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association — clearly explained how we can combat those common issues, in particular poverty.

According to her, the overall achievements towards poverty eradication have been slow and uneven. However, she went on to say that India has reduced the share of the poor in the population from 54.8 per cent in 1973/ 74 to 27.5 per cent in 2004/05, however, in absolute terms more than 300 million people are still living below the poverty line.

Nevertheless, she went on to say how India combats the poverty issue. “As a strategy for poverty reduction, we have adopted a three pronged approach that seeks to accelerate economic growth by focusing on sectors that are employment intensive, to bring about human and social development by providing basic minimum services and to introduce anti-poverty programmes. Our Parliament has enacted National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 which provides 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household below the poverty line in the villages.” So, I believe that this would be an ideal example for other countries of the region to think of their strategies in a much innovative manner.

Also, it is learnt that India has established National Disaster Management Authorities at the Centre, State and District levels in order to combat the climate changes. Also they have been created the National Disaster Response Fund and the National Disaster Mitigation Fund to provide financial relief to those affected. This is another area for other member countries to think of as climate changes are happing at quite regular intervals in this part of the world now-a-days.

India being the largest democracy in the world, its role in South Asia has become a vital factor. Today, no country in the world can function or endure without thinking of India’s emerging economic progression. Hence, countries around the world including the west have recognised the importance of maintaining a sound and healthy relationship with India that is essential and crucial for their economic and social progress as well.

When India maintains such an excellent relationships with other nations apart from South Asia, counties in the South Asia region too can derive a number of benefits out of such relationships. For an instance, if USA wants to setup a call centre in India, India can subcontract it into Sri Lanka (partly or fully), provided U.S.A agrees to do so. This will create a number of job opportunities in both countries; hence, it will bring an economic prosperous to those countries eventually.

Therefore, India has a huge role to play as the leading county in this region and should be willing to share her experiences, expertise and benefits with other neighbouring countries. Hence, India’s commitment towards prosperous South Asia is very much crucial for the development of other counties as well.

Pakistan’s role in the region

Pakistan has been a good friend of Sri Lanka over the years and especially the bilateral trade between these two countries has shown a significant improvement during the last few years.  

However, the ongoing war against terrorism in Pakistan at present seems to be harming the Pakistan economy to a greater extent in various ways. Therefore, other countries in the region should extend their hand to Pakistan to overcome their difficulties before long.

Despite those difficulties, Pakistan too has achieved so many milestones in many areas which are certainly encouraging considering the vast population of Pakistan. During the speech of Speaker of Pakistan, she noted that the Pakistani Parliament has more than 22.7 per cent women representation, which is the highest in the region, makes it all the more important for them to seek a greater role in decision-making and solving issues related to women and children. So, this is an eye opener for other South Asian countries to think of inclusion of more women representatives to their respective legislatures. Hence, this will certainly promote the gender equality in this part of the world to a greater extent.

Conclusion

I firmly believe that the countries belonging to South Asia should think and act as a single region, so that they can derive a number of benefits individually as well as regionally. Countries of this region should exchange of their experiences, expertise, views, policies, resources, etc. amongst member countries in order to confront common issues such as poverty, hunger, corruption, climate challenges, women and child issues, etc. This will enable countries to reach each county’s development goals quite easily.

Also, greater cooperation amongst member countries will surely yield a number of benefits to the people of this region. Therefore, we must promote the idea of ‘one-region’ as much as possible and should face common challenges as one-region.

Hence, I believe that the forums such as Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA – Asia Region) and South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) have to play a pivotal role to build a solid and prosperous South Asian region and for our future generation. For that we all need to act with great responsibility and our region requires a solid and visionary political leadership, greater disciplines, determination, and greater commitment, in all the countries in the region.

(The writer can be reached on [email protected])