The South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) Committee of Experts took the decision at a two-day meeting in New Delhi on February 26 and 27, said SS Kapur, joint secretary of Indian commerce ministry, on Wednesday.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), he said South Asian experts have chalked out a year-long programme for finalising rules for origin of goods and technical assistance to the LDCs in the region to help implement the Safta.

The heads of government and states of Saarc nations signed a broad framework for South Asian Free Trade Area in January during its summit in Pakistan. But issues like rules of origin, list of sensitive items, mechanism for compensating revenue loss to the LDCs and technical assistance to them, were left out for further discussions.

Kapur said, "We are very optimistic about the Safta. Our work programme for the year has already been agreed upon and we may even make faster progress than the anticipated dates."

Macky Hasim, president of Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said the chamber would hold seminars on Safta in Dhaka, Kathmandu, Delhi, Mumbai and Colombo.

Meanwhile, the Ficci suggested Safta to include free movement of services and businessmen among the member countries to help free trade become an effective tool for economic integration of the region.

Pointing out Sapta's (South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement) failure in raising trade volume among the member states, SN Agarwal, a senior member of Ficci executive committee, said easy visa regulations and free movement of businessmen in the region was a key pre-requisite for increasing trade and investment.

"Current level of trade can be almost doubled if appropriate regional agreement on road, rail, shipping and air links are worked out to allow seamless movement like in the European Union," he added.

He also proposed signing of a treaty on investment protection and promotion alongside the Safta.

Agarwal said the Ficci suggested an early harvest scheme under which Saarc countries, especially non-LDCs, can agree on a list of duty free products from the very start of Safta in 2006.

Stressing that the Safta was not the final aim and the regional association has to move towards an economic union, he further suggested for capital account convertibility, integration of central banks of member states, common currency, harmonisation of customs, banking, insurance, quality and arbitration standards.