COLOMBO. May 4 A delayed regional trade pact will be I jump-started at the South i.Asian summit next week amid ' repeated calls to make the § rouping more businesslike, iplomats and officials here said, reports AFP.

The proposed preferential trade agreement is expected to figure prominently when heads of states and governments from 7 nations in the region meet in । the Maldives capital Male from । May 12 to the 14th.

The idea of a preferential । trade pact among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members was floated by Sri Lanka in 1991 in Colombo but there was little progress.

"Declarations are divine but the devil is in the detail," an Asian diplomat here said underscoring the tough bargaining and reluctance by several coun-I tries to grant tariff and non-I tariff concessions to each other. I The SAARC seven — I Bangladesh, Bhutan. India, I Maldives, Nepal. Pakistan and ‘ Sri Lanka — members have exchanged lists of commodities ■ for which they agree to give Ereferential treatment but there as been no finality.

• The South Asian Preferen-i tial Trade Agreement (SAPTA) [ must be negotiated, concluded i and ratified by members in the | next seven months to set the stage for creating a South Asian 1 Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) by the year 2000.

i The frustrations due to de-| lays in getting SAARC to work i and improve the living condi-i tions in this region which is i home to 1.100 million people ■ has been repeatedly highlighted by Sri Lankan President Chan-

drika Kumaratunga.

"As SAARC enters its first decade, the results, I must confess, do seem meagre." President Kumaratunga told the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh Khaleda Zia who visited here in January 1995 as Chairman of SAARC.

Economic analysts said poor progress of SAPTA was due to fears by smaller countries that their largest member. India, could swamp all other economies if trade barriers were dismantled overnight.

Four states in SAARC — Bangladesh. Bhutan. Maldives and Nepal — qualify as Least Developed States (LDS) giving them a disadvantage in agreeing to blanket concessions to all SAARC members, analysts pointed out.

Pakistan had been fearful of its arch rival India dumping cheaply manufactured goods to cripple the local manufacturers while Sri Lanka has been constantly complaining the huge trade imbalance with India.

Sri Lankan exports to India were about 21 million dollars last year compared to imports from India worth nearly 500 million dollars, officials said adding that promised concessions by India were yet to materialise.

Indian Prime Minister who visited Colombo as Foreign Minister in January announced their unilaterally lifting tariff and quota barriers on 80 Sri Lankan commodities but what those items are is yet to be worked out.

Under the SAPTA terms, any concession given to one country must be extended to other member states and they must also

agree not to Impose new tariff and non-tariff barriers to inhibit intra-regional trade.

Sri Lanka President Kumaratunga has urged other SAARC nations to use India s ■huge domestic market as bait to attract big fish to the region.

Kumaratunga last year called for Joint efforts to attract foreign capital to South Asia and offered to establish a bureau to promote investments in the region.

She said she was keen to turn Sri Lanka into the hub port of SAARC and make it a financial services centre as trade barriers were progressively dismantled in the region.

"Sri Lanka has friendly bilateral relations with all countries in the region and can be an Important focal point for regional development", Kumaratunga said. She hoped to make Colombo the "Singapore" of South Asia.

International Investors be-Kn to show interest in South ia only after India started its economic, liberalisation process in recent years, she said.

The emerging world trade environment towards free trade and regional trading blocks has given SAARC new meaning to get on with the business of promoting trade and investment, diplomats preparing for the summit said.

The private sector trade and commerce chambers in South Asia are already lobbying governments to push SAPTA.

Some 60 business and commerce leaders from the region met in Pakistan's port city of Karachi last month to finalise their proposed economic agenda for the ninth SAARC summit.