South Asian nations sign trade, environmental accords

THIMPHU (April 30 2010)

16th Saarc Summit concluded here on Thursday with adopting the joint declaration and Thimphu Statement on climate change for development in the region, improving inter-connectivity, promoting people-to-people contacts and evolve joint strategy for resolving the issues of water shortage, environment and food shortage.

A ceremony of flag hoisting of members' states of Saarc was held outside the Assembly Hall where this 16th Summit was held before the concluding session. All the eight leaders of the Saarc members and observers especially participated in the flag hoisting ceremony held outside the Hall where the weather was very pleasant.

All the leaders also witnessed the art and craft work of the Saarc Business Association of Home Based Workers (SABAH), which was especially arranged in the lobby of the Assembly Hall, the venue of the 16th Saarc Summit. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and his wife along with other leaders of the Saarc and their wives went around different sections of the exhibition and highly appreciated the art and craft work displayed in the exhibition.

All the leaders mixed up with each other on this occasion and appreciated the art work of each country displayed in the exhibition. Prime Minister Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh were together during this exhibition and even exchanged pleasantries, Artwork by Artists from Saarc members states, including Pakistan on the issue of Climate Change was also displayed in the exhibition, which was highly appreciated by all the leaders.

All the leaders took keen interest in the artwork displayed in the exhibition Later the leaders approved the "Thimphu Declaration" giving a new vision to the organisation to join hands for resolving poverty, improving development, finding solution to power and water shortage. The Foreign Ministers of all the Saarc members stated then signed the "Bilateral Trade and Services Agreement" and from Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi signed it.

Later it was decided that next 17th Saarc would be held in Maldives. Then the leaders of the Saarc summit adopted Thimphu Statement of Climate Change and joint declaration of 16th Saarc Summit that has already been approved by the Ministerial Meeting of the member states. The Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigme Thinley thanked the leaders of the Saarc Summit for coming here to attend the summit.

AP adds: South Asian leaders unveiled a $300 million fund to reduce poverty in the region and signed agreements on trade and environmental protection as a two-day summit in this tiny Buddhist kingdom ended Thursday. The agreement on trade, signed by the nations' foreign ministers, covers services in health, hospitality, communications, computers and air transport services.

The environment convention, signed by the leaders, is aimed at exchanging knowledge and eco-friendly technology to combat climate change. The fund for fighting poverty, with contributions from each nation, will be used for projects that empower women and promote health care and for building infrastructure.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010

Leaders for taking full advantage of Saarc Development Fund

RECORDER REPORT
THIMPHU (April 30 2010)

The South Asian Association of Regional Countries (Saarc) on Thursday issued a 37-point declaration on the conclusion of Sixteenth summit held from April 28-29 at Thimphu, which urged for full advantage of the Saarc Development Fund (SDF) to promote the welfare of the people of the Saarc region, to improve their quality of life and to accelerate economic growth, social progress and poverty alleviation in the region.

The leaders also showed concern over the rising energy shortage in the region and agreed that an Action Plan on Energy conservation would be prepared by the Saarc Energy Centre (SEC), Islamabad with inputs from the Member States and submit to the inter-governmental mechanism for consideration.

With a theme of Green and Happy South Asia, the declaration underlined the important role of the SDF for financing regional and sub-regional programmes and projects and emphasised the need for the Member States to take full advantage of the mechanism of the SDF through expeditious clearance and implementation of the projects and programmes.

According to declaration the Saarc leaders have recognised the need to enhance co-operation in the energy sector to facilitate energy trade, development of efficient conventional and renewable energy sources including hydropower. They emphasised the need to undertake studies to develop regional energy projects, promote regional power trade, efficiency, conservation and development of labelling and standardisation of appliances, and sharing of knowledge and technologies.

It also reiterated that South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) to be implement in letter and spirit and emphasised the need to realise the full potential, through reduction of the size of the sensitive lists, acceleration of trade facilitation measures, and removal of non-tariff, para-tariff and other barriers and leaders directed the SAFTA Ministerial Council to work in earnest in these areas in a time-bound manner.

The declaration strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and expressed deep concern over the threat, which terrorism continues to pose to peace, security and economic stability of the South Asian region and reiterated their firm resolve to root out terrorism and recalled the Ministerial Declaration on co-operation in combating terrorism adopted by the Thirty-first session of the Council of Ministers in Colombo.

It emphasised that the linkages between the terrorism, illegal trafficking in drugs and psychotropic substance, illegal trafficking of persons and firearms all continue to remain a matter of serious concern and reiterated their commitment to address these problems in a comprehensive manner.

It needs to strengthen regional co-operation to fight terrorism and transitional organised crimes. They reaffirmed their commitment to implement the Saarc Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and its Additional Protocol and Saarc Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the declaration re-emphasised the importance of co-ordinated and concerted response to combat terrorism.

The declaration expressed satisfaction that Saarc had achieved a number of important milestones with the completion of twenty-five years of its establishment. It also urged for a 'South Asia Forum' for the generation of debate, discussion and the exchange of ideas on South Asia and its future development.

"Its need to reach out to different sections of the South Asian community, particularly its students and youth, private media, private sector, think tanks, civil society, and institutions of economic development," the declaration said. According to that the scope and substance of co-operation had expanded to diverse fields, providing a firm basis for genuine partnership. However, a number of these had not translated into meaningful and tangible benefits to the people.

They resolved that the Silver Jubilee Year should be commemorated by making Saarc truly action oriented by fulfilling commitments, implementing declarations and decisions and operationalizing instruments and living up to the hopes and aspirations of one-fifth of humanity.

Evolved into multi-party democracies, underlined the challenges faced by them in ensuring effective, efficient, transparent and accountable governments, the declaration noted and said that in this regard, it emphasised the need for regional co-operation to strengthen good governance through sharing of experiences, best-practices and establishing institutional linkages.

The Saarc leaders emphasised on a greater focus to pursue people-centric development with due emphasis on socio-cultural progress and upholding traditions and values and in that regard, noted the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) pursued by Bhutan, inter alia, in ensuring people-centric development, culture, preservation of environment, better governance. They further noted that other Member States might consider Bhutan's experience with the concept and welcomed Bhutan's offer to host a Saarc Workshop on GNH in 2010.

They welcomed Climate Change, as the theme for the Summit and reaffirmed their commitment to address this challenge. In this context, they adopted the Thimphu Statement on Climate Change and directed that the recommendations contained therein be implemented in earnest.

According to declaration leaders also called for focus on water management and conservation and development of co-operative projects at regional level in terms of exchange of best practices and knowledge, capacity building and transfer of eco-friendly technology.

However, the deeply concerned by the extent of environmental degradation in the region, reiterated the importance of sustainably managing environment and development through adoption of eco-friendly approaches and technologies and that South Asia should become a world leader in low-carbon technology and renewable energies.

They also concerned by the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, called for effective regional programmes in early warning, preparedness and management including response and rehabilitation, while remaining within their respective national laws and procedures.

The declaration noted with satisfaction the ongoing initiatives in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment through regional co-operation. It welcomed the signing of the Saarc Agreement on Trade in Services and expressed that this will open up new vistas of trade co-operation and further deepen the integration of the regional economies.

The Saarc leaders emphasised the need to strengthen the role of private sector in regional initiatives through appropriate mechanisms including through Public-Private Partnership as well as the need for greater intra-Saarc investment promotion efforts.

They underlined the need for taking concrete measures to improve trade facilitation. They also recognised the importance of development of communication system and transport infrastructure and transit facilities, specially for the landlocked countries to promote intra-Saarc trade.

The leaders emphasised the need to strengthen co-operation in education and directed greater interaction among the universities in the region towards undertaking of joint programmes on collaborative research and exchange programmes. Acknowledging the enormity of the challenges related to food insecurity and poverty, the leaders directed the Saarc Agriculture Ministers to vigorously pursue regional co-operation in agriculture covering all sub-sectors to enhance overall agricultural productivity.

They underscored the need for promotion of tourism to enhance greater people-to-people contacts in the region and called for the creation of tourism-friendly environment. They welcomed the offer of the Government of Nepal to host the Third Saarc Ministerial Meeting on Tourism in Kathmandu in 2011, which coincides with the Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

The leaders welcomed the observers from Australia, the People's Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mauritius, the Union of Myanmar, the United States of America and the European Union and appreciated their participation in the Summit.

They acknowledged that Australia and Myanmar were attending the Summit for the first time. They appreciated the interest shown by the observers to work with Saarc. The leaders welcomed the offer of the Government of Maldives to host the Seventeenth Summit of the Heads of State or Government of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) in 2011.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010

More industrial estates can be developed: Minister

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI (April 30 2010)
More industrial estates can be developed on vast land available between Karachi and Hyderabad, Sindh Minister for Industries Sindh Rauf Siddiqui said here on Thursday. Speaking at a seminar on Financial Management and Financial Liquidity organised by Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in collaboration with RAKZ Communication (Pvt) Ltd, he advised business community to bring investment projects and assured that the government will provide maximum facilities to the investors.

He said that Nooriabad, Hyderabad and Kotri industrial estates are well developed and investors should establish industrial units in these estates. He noted that water supply scheme for Nooriabad industrial estate is in advanced stage and hoped that it will be completed by March 2011.

Referring to information technology (IT), the minister said that India has taken a lead in this sector and doing lucrative business while Pakistan has wasted time and made little progress. Rauf Siddiqui appreciated holding 2nd Financial and IT Expo 2010 from August 3 to 5, 2010. President KCCI, Abdul Majid Haji Mohammad said that there has been significant development in the IT and telecommunication sector, but due to lack of recognition and platform they have drained.

Chairman KCCI Information Technology Sub-committee, Asif Baga said that transfer of technology involves external acquisition of technology. So, it does not require R&D. He said now information technology is involved in every field of life and this is ever growing.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010