They said the process of cooperation in various fields in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was initiated two decades ago but the achievement is very insignificant due to lack of political commitment.

They focused on wrapping up all negotiations of Safta (South Asian Free Trade Agreement) before the forthcoming Saarc summit scheduled to be held in November this year.

They were speaking at the daylong seminar titled 'Promoting Regional Cooperation in South Asia: Issues for the Dhaka Saarc Summit', organised by South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (Saceps) in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

In the first working session on 'Operationalising Safta', Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury said the trend of deepening economic integration at the regional and bilateral levels has become dominant across the world, as the multilateral trade negotiations are not progressing much.

The CPD Research Director Mustafizur Rahman said Saarc countries are more interested to create barriers in the process of trade liberalisation through preparing long lists of negative products in the Safta negotiations.

"They should come up with positive attitude to shorten negative lists, relax rules of origin and agree on more trade compensation to make the ongoing Safta negotiations meaningful," Rahman said.

Former Indian diplomat Muchkund Dubey chaired the first working session where Saceps Executive Director Sridhar Khatri, Foreign Ministry Director General (South Asia) Ruhul Amin, former commerce secretary Alamgir Rahman Choudhury, ICC-Bangladesh President Mahbubur Rahman, and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute President Farooq Sobhan also spoke.

In the second working session on 'Transport Integration in South Asia', former commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmood Choudhury said regional transportation links are needed for cross-border trade and commerce.

Enhancement of both way export and import volume reflects true picture of trade liberalisation, he said adding that if an Indian truck comes to Dhaka with goods and returns to Kolkata empty, it does not reflect both way trade.

Gono Forum President Dr Kamal Hossian, former secretaries Kamal Uddin Choudhury and Qamrul Islam Siddique and JSD President Hasnul Haque Inu also spoke.

Former minister of the Maldives Ibrahim H Zaki chaired the session and former adviser to the caretaker government Syed Manzur Elahi co chaired the session.

In the concluding session, economists and development experts including bureaucrats suggested creation of a Saarc Poverty Alleviation Fund to eradicate the regional poverty.

"We would like to propose the creation of the fund and take necessary steps in the next Saacr summit scheduled to be held in November," Mohan Man Sainju, chairman of Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF), an NGO of Nepal, said.

Kamal Uddin Siddique, principal secretary to the prime minister, Prof MM Akash of Dhaka University, Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of PPRC, Atiur Rahman, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), and Shirak Gah, an economist from Pakistan, also spoke at the session.