Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Tuesday that the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ought to have direct flights between their capitals.

"South Asia has flourished most when connected to itself and the rest of the world," Singh said in his opening speech at the 14th SAARC summit.

However, he said, the dream of full regional connectivity will not be realized merely by building roads and railways.

"We must commit to actually making the travel freer and easier, " he told the delegates. "As an immediate step, India is announcing a unilateral liberalization of visas for students, teachers, professors, journalists and patients from SAARC. Let us aim to double the intra-SAARC flow of tourists in the next five years."

Talking about trade among SAARC countries, Singh said that there was an ongoing process of building an open and integrated market from the Himalayas to the Pacific.

He urged the SAARC members to fulfill their commitment to the SAARC Free Trade Area (Safta) and promised that India would allow zero-duty access to the country before the end of this year to South Asian neighbors who are least developed countries (LDCs) and further reduce the sensitive list in respect of these countries.

At the begging of his speech, Singh welcomed Afghanistan as a full SAARC member, saying that India felt privileged that Afghanistan's first SAARC summit as a full member was being held by India.

He also welcomed China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and the European Union, who are observers to the 14th SAARC summit.

During the two-day summit hosted by India in its capital, eight SAARC countries will discuss major peace and development issues including anti-terrorism, poverty alleviation and intra-regional free trade.

SAARC, comprising of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, was established in 1985.

It is the first time in the SAARC history for China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and the United States to attend the summit as observers.

Source: Xinhua