Some people celebrate 25 years of anything: dead marriages, inert regional groupings, just occupying space.
We don’t. SAARC must be assessed by its fruits. On internal connectivity it fails. Here’s the evidence, carried in op-ed articles in Bangladesh’s Daily Star, Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror and also in a PTI dispatch:
It is always easier to do things within one’s own country than outside, or at least it should be. One does not need a passport or a visa to travel inside one’s country, but those formalities are required when one ventures out. Telephone calls within one’s own country are cheaper than to foreign countries. The same logic can be extended to a regional grouping such as SAARC which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
If none of these conditions are satisfied, one has to conclude that the regional grouping is not real; that it has been more an opportunity for mutual ego-stroking for the region’s leaders, than something yielding tangible benefits to South Asia’s people; that there is little to celebrate after 25 years.
Given the reality of cross-border terrorism and paranoid security policies, it will be some time before lines outside SAARC-country consular offices disappear. But cheaper telecom connectivity within SAARC is eminently achievable.
The PTI story, carried in MSN India starts thus:
Low and uniform telecom tariffs across SAARC nations will help improve trade relations between member countries, as well as bolster regional cooperation, says a study.
“The government must, through telecom operators, provide low and uniform telecom tariff across SAARC nations. As of now one is spending 64 times more if using the roaming phone within the SAARC nations,” Sri Lanka-based non-profit research organisation LIRNEasia said in a report on Information and Communication Technologies and Services Trade within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
3 Comments
Niranjana V. Raveendranath
Dear Prof. Samarajiva,
What is your opinion about the TRCSL’s new broadband QoS monitoring program and its directive to the operators recently?
Rohan Samarajiva
This is not the right thread for this topic. Please see new post.
Niranjana V. Raveendranath
Prof. Samarajiva,
Thanks.
LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager Gayani Hurulle at the Internet Governance Forum Sri Lanka 2026
The Internet Governance Forum Sri Lanka (IGF Sri Lanka) 2026 was held on 23 September under the theme ‘Empowering the Internet in the Age of Intelligence through Multistakeholderism’. The event brought together stakeholders from government, industry, academia, civil society and the technical community to discuss key issues in internet governance.
Is Personally Identifiable Information safe in the hands of the State?
In an article published on 25 September 2026 in the DailyFT, LIRNEasia Chair Professor Rohan Samarajiva discusses the risks of the state holding large amounts of personally identifiable information (PII). He looks at the misuse of electoral-registry information during the July 1983 pogrom, which critics of public-service digitalisation, particularly the Sri Lanka Unique Identity (SLUDI), cite as a reason for extreme caution, if not halting such initiatives.
LIRNEasia is hiring: Senior Researcher
LIRNEasia is looking for a talented individual to join the team as a Senior Researcher to drive impactful research. The full job description can be accessed below.
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