SAARC Car Rally to begin today from Bangladesh

Thirty Tata Safaris, carrying about 120 participants from SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries, covering over 8200 km, across varying terrain, over a 30 day period, ‘connecting people, strengthening ties’ on the way as they meander through the sub-continent. The first ever SAARC Car Rally, scheduled to kick off from Bangladesh on March 15, promises to be a mega event of 2007 that would showcase the oneness, and diversity, of the region like never before, and attempt to tap the vast potential of intra-SAARC trade, investment and tourism opportunities. The Rally is being organised by the Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Rally would be flagged off from Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh) tomorrow by the Chief Advisor to the Govt. of Bangladesh, Dr. Fakruddin Ahmed.

In fact, the seeds of this unique initiative were sown in November 2005 at the Dhaka SAARC Summit where the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh announced, "India offers to hold a South Asian car Rally. This would be a run up to our next Summit. It would symbolise vividly our regional identity and also draw attention to the urgent need to improve our SAARC transport infrastructure". The idea received overwhelming support from all other Member States, and in true SAARC spirit, all countries have pledged complete logistics and hospitality support for the success of the Rally. Not to be left behind, the private sector in SAARC region too has come forward very enthusiastically, making it a successful public-private partnership.

. The route survey has already been carried out by the Ministry of External Affairs, CII and Autocar India jointly and the broad route, that would criss-cross India, is as follows: Bangladesh (March 15-18) - India (March 18-19)-Bhutan (March 19-21) - India (March 21-23) - Nepal (March 23-26) - India (March 26-28) - Pakistan (March 28-31) - India (March 31 - April 7) - Sri Lanka (April 10-13) and lastly Maldives (April 13-14). The Rally will reach Delhi on April 2 coinciding with the SAARC Summit and would be flagged off from Delhi on April 3 by the SAARC leaders.

The night halts that have been planned on the rally route in India are: Jaigaon (West Bengal) on March 18, Guwahati (Assam) on March 21, Siliguri (West Bengal) on March 22, Ramnagar (Uttarakhand) on March 26, Chandigarh on March 27, Amritsar (Punjab) on March 31, New Delhi on April 1 & 2, Jaipur (Rajasthan) on April 3, Udaipur (Rajasthan) on April 4, and Mumbai on April 5,6 and 7.

Coinciding with the Rally, key business events have also been planned, on sector-specific subjects, in each of the SAARC nations through which the Rally would traverse. The topics for the business events are: Trade & Economic Cooperation, ICT, Energy, SME Cooperation, CEO’s Roundtable, Tourism and Fish Processing. More information on this is available on the official website of the Rally: www.saarcarally.org.

Tata Motors are the vehicle sponsors for the event. They are providing Tata Safaris for all the participants and organisers. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) is also supporting the event, along with Indian public sector oil marketing companies. Medical support is being provided by Apollo Hospitals. Autocar India and the Automobile Association of Upper India have pitched in with technical and logistic support. The States of West Bengal, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra are also actively involved in supporting the mega event. Doordarshan would be sharing its coverage of the Rally free of charges with other electronic media.

A major aspect that the Rally organisers plan to highlight at different fora during the course of the Rally is the immense untapped potential of intra-SAARC trade. In 2004, the total value of merchandise exports reported by the South Asian countries (excluding Bhutan) was US $ 102.9 billion, of which only US $ 6.4 billion was destined for the SAARC member states. Thus, intra-SAARC exports constituted just about 6 % of the total exports of SAARC countries. This makes a strong case to use SAARC as an effective platform to harness geographical proximity of member states for faster growth in the region and taking care of the economic imbalances.

To sum up, in Dr. Manmohan Singh’s words, "If we wish the next twenty years of SAARC to be different, we should take the first decision to reconnect the countries of the subcontinent on the one hand and then reconnect the subcontinent to the larger Asian neighbourhood on the other. We need to recharge and regenerate the arteries of transport and communication that bind us together and in turn link our region to the rest of Asia to reclaim the prosperity that is undoubtedly our due."

And this is exactly what the Rally, with its motto of ‘Connecting People, Strengthening Ties’, aspires to achieve.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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