The Mumbai Declaration adopted at the two-day Leaders' Conclave which ended here made a resolve to implement Safta, in letter and spirit, prune the number of items on sensitive lists, remove non-trade barriers and regularise and liberalise trade in services.

To achieve the objectives, the countries of seven-member grouping would also make efforts to reduce the cost of doing business in South Asia while adopting a regional investment protocol to promote intra-regional investments and joint ventures in the region.

The declaration resolves to build world class infrastructure at land border ports of the Saarc nations. It would also work towards adopting an Open Sky Policy to improve air connectivity by ensuring direct flights between capitals and other major cities of Saarc and giving access to private airlines to operate in the region.

The Saarc nations would promote energy cooperation to enhance production and transmission among member countries, thus reducing cost and expanding scope of cross-border water cooperation.

The declaration charts a plan to harmonise standards and customs procedure and ensure mutual recognition of certificates.

To address the issue of smooth movement of people within the region, the declaration suggested providing easy and long-term multiple visas to businesspersons and tourists.

Agencies' earlier reports said: India Saturday said South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) should include services and investments in order to enlarge its scope.

"Full implementation of Safta will catalyse other areas of economic integration, including enlarging the scope of Safta," India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after inaugurating the second Saarc Business Leaders Conclave organised by FICCI here, according to Press Trust of India.

Mukherjee observed that regional integration would provide opportunities of cooperation to address problems of energy shortage, constraints of transit for land-locked regions of the subcontinent and overcoming high transaction costs due to poor facilitation.

An Islamabad report adds: Ahead of the Saarc Commerce Ministers meeting in Kathmandu later this month to discuss among others India's complaint of Pakistan's refusal to fully implement Safta, Islamabad has said it is committed to implementing the trade agreement.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama here Saturday that Islamabad believed that the South Asian Free Trade Agreement would enhance trade among the countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Pakistan while implementing Safta to the rest of the Saarc member states declined to apply it to India stating that it cannot permit free trade until the Kashmir issue is resolved.

UNB adds: Experts making recommendation for development in the Saarc region here yesterday suggested that the private sector should take the lead to integrate businesses to capture developed global markets collectively.

"Never wait for governments for what you need, rather take the lead to push the governments move forward to match policy with the private-sector needs," Bhutan's Trade and Industry Secretary Dasho Karma Dorji told a technical session on the concluding day.

A 23-member delegation of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), led by its president Mir Nasir Hossain, attended the conference along with the business leaders from apex trade bodies from the Saarc member-states.

Chairing the session, immediate-past president of SCCI Macky Hashim called upon the private sector to examine the pros and cons of integration between the smaller and bigger nations in the region and then join hands to maximize mutual benefits.

He, however, stressed the need for considering the interests of the smaller nations so they could derive more benefit than the bigger ones.

Citing an example, he said Sri Lanka became more benefited than India through the free-trade agreement between the two countries.