CHANDIGARH, April 16: South Asian region is one of the most deprived regions in the world. Stating this here today, Prof Elliot Tepper of Carlton University, Ottawa, Canada said it is time to move from national security issues to human security issues. He was speaking at a discussion on "Emerging trends in regional cooperation in South Asia" organised by the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC).Prof R. S. Ghumman of the Department of Economics, Punjabi University, stated that while 22 per cent of the global population lived in this region, it accounted for a mere 1.3 per cent of the global Gross National Product. However, 40 per cent of the world's poor and 46 per cent of the world's illiterates lived here. He cited various instances of how both India and Pakistan were importing goods from other countries at a higher rate despite the fact that they can buy it from each other.Prof Tepper traced the history of South Asian cooperation and highlighted "costs of not cooperating with each other". With major changes in external policies and democratic governments in place in the region, the prospects of cooperation had brightened.Earlier, the Director of IDC, Pramod Kumar observed that globally their had been cases of conflict induced cooperation. He added that there existed a "culture of violence" on the agenda of ruling classes as opposed to a "culture of peace" which was the agenda of the people.He placed ultranationalism in politics and globalisation of economy before the participants and sought a debate on the issue.
