After 16 years of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), South Asia remains the least integrated region compared with other similar regional groupings, and has the largest number of poor. That was the message of the Human Development in South Asia 2001 report, which looks at the region with globalisation as the overarching theme. Almost half-a-million people in this part of the world have become poorer after the process began taking effect. The report, produced annually by the Islamabad-based Mahbub ul Haq Development Centre, says this is because of the inability of the states to develop response mechanisms, incomplete reforms and inadequate pro-poor policies.

Beyond the rhetoric of cooperation we heard during the 11th summit last week, as a region South Asia has very little to show. Trade among them remains below five percent of their total exports, compared to 22 percent for ASEAN members and 55 percent for NAFTA members, and the region's average tariffs remain very high compared to other groupings of nations. Nepal's consolation, articulated by Shankar Sharma, National Planning Commission member, is that we are doing better than the rest of South Asia in human development indicators. In 1975 Nepal's Human Development Index (HDI) was 0.29. by last year, it had shot up to 0.48, the fastest gain compared to other South Asian states. We also spend the most on education-about 13 percent of all public spending.