MALE, May 12: India today launched a major offensive in regional economic diplomacy at the SAARC summit here with Prime Minister I K Gujral formally proposing an initiative to take south asian cooperation into the contours of a South Asian Economic Community (SAFC).

The Indian initiative, seeking to set the agenda for taking regional economic cooperation into the next millenium but evoking mixed reactions among the members of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), was mooted by Gujral during his inaugural address while handing over the SAARC chairmanship to hosts, the Maldives.

Making a forceful plea with the summit leaders to ponder over his proposal, Gujral suggested, ``we should entrust the commerce ministers and the committee on economic cooperation with deciding on modalities for realising this goal.''

The prime minister said, ``this project would cover crucial issues vital for our shared economic future, such as a regional investment regime, export-oriented joint ventures, easy movement of goods and capital, enilargement of our export potential by raising quality standards and expanded regional market, human resource and skills develpment, scientific and technological cooperation, upgrading and augmenting of regional infrastructure, and regional diffusion of financial and other services.''

Prominent among those expressing reservations about the long-term goal of transforming SAARC into an economic community on the pattern of the European Economic Community are the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

They argue that SAARC should not copy prototypes from other regions as it has its own regional characteristics and slow pace of economic development.``One has to see the feasibility of each single step we take,'' the Maldivians commented on the Indian prime minister's proposal to take the region on the economic highway.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.