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'China's full membership will provide SAARC extra bargaining power'
'China's full membership will provide SAARC extra bargaining power'
Nizam Ahmed
China has shown its active interest in becoming a full member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in place of its current status as an observer, reliable sources in Dhaka said on Saturday.
"The Asian giant (China) hopes that it will attain full membership of SAARC with the approval of all its eight members in the 18th summit of this regional cooperation forum to be held in Nepal in the first half of 2013," a senior official of the foreign ministry told the FE.
According to the rules of the bloc, every decision should be unanimously approved by all the members of the SAARC that was set up in 1985 at the initiative of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are its founding members while Afghanistan joined the regional bloc in 2005.
"If China becomes a full member, SAARC will have more bargaining capability in relations to the global trade and politically also it will help ease rivalry between India and Pakistan," said Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed, a senior teacher of the Department of International Relations of the Dhaka University.
As China has a strong economic presence in several countries of the region, it believes by becoming a full member, it will be able to contribute in a major way to steer decision-making process of SAARC for common economic development and effective regional integration.
"China should be given full membership as it is the largest trading partner of the SAARC member-countries," Prof. Imtiaz said.
The trade between China and the member-countries of the SAARC at the bilateral level are likely to increase manifold if the Asian giant becomes a full member of the bloc and plays a greater role in the South Asian Free Trading Agreement (SAFTA), observers said.
Also the South Asian countries are likely to attract a substantial amount of Chinese investment in infrastructure development, agriculture, industry, housing, manufacturing of machinery, development of banking sector and other related fields, they said.
An international conference on 'Challenges and Opportunities of Twenty First Century SAARC', organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in Dhaka last month had called upon the SAARC member-countries to consider giving full membership to China.
The participants at the conference said China deserves the full membership as it is the largest trading partner with each of the South Asian countries.
India's trade deficit against China rose to $43 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2011-12 to March against $19.20 billion in the previous fiscal year, according to the Press Information Bureau of India.
The overall trade imbalance of Pakistan increased nearly to $18 billion from July 2011 to April 2012 and its trade deficit alone with China totalled at more than $10 billion, according to Pakistani media reports.
'China's full membership will provide SAARC extra bargaining power'
Nizam Ahmed
China has shown its active interest in becoming a full member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in place of its current status as an observer, reliable sources in Dhaka said on Saturday.
"The Asian giant (China) hopes that it will attain full membership of SAARC with the approval of all its eight members in the 18th summit of this regional cooperation forum to be held in Nepal in the first half of 2013," a senior official of the foreign ministry told the FE.
According to the rules of the bloc, every decision should be unanimously approved by all the members of the SAARC that was set up in 1985 at the initiative of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are its founding members while Afghanistan joined the regional bloc in 2005.
"If China becomes a full member, SAARC will have more bargaining capability in relations to the global trade and politically also it will help ease rivalry between India and Pakistan," said Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed, a senior teacher of the Department of International Relations of the Dhaka University.
As China has a strong economic presence in several countries of the region, it believes by becoming a full member, it will be able to contribute in a major way to steer decision-making process of SAARC for common economic development and effective regional integration.
"China should be given full membership as it is the largest trading partner of the SAARC member-countries," Prof. Imtiaz said.
The trade between China and the member-countries of the SAARC at the bilateral level are likely to increase manifold if the Asian giant becomes a full member of the bloc and plays a greater role in the South Asian Free Trading Agreement (SAFTA), observers said.
Also the South Asian countries are likely to attract a substantial amount of Chinese investment in infrastructure development, agriculture, industry, housing, manufacturing of machinery, development of banking sector and other related fields, they said.
An international conference on 'Challenges and Opportunities of Twenty First Century SAARC', organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in Dhaka last month had called upon the SAARC member-countries to consider giving full membership to China.
The participants at the conference said China deserves the full membership as it is the largest trading partner with each of the South Asian countries.
India's trade deficit against China rose to $43 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2011-12 to March against $19.20 billion in the previous fiscal year, according to the Press Information Bureau of India.
The overall trade imbalance of Pakistan increased nearly to $18 billion from July 2011 to April 2012 and its trade deficit alone with China totalled at more than $10 billion, according to Pakistani media reports.
