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Opening Remarks by Foreign Secretary at
SAARC Standing Committee Meeting on the SAARC Secretary General's
Report
25/04/2010
Thank you Mr. Chairperson
Let me begin by congratulating you on your election as Chairperson
of the 37th Session of the Standing Committee. I have no doubt that
SAARC will be greatly benefited by your able leadership. I also wish
to express, on behalf of my delegation and my own behalf, grateful
thanks to the Royal Government of Bhutan for the warm hospitality
accorded to us and the excellent arrangements for the Meeting. It is
indeed a pleasure to be here in this beautiful city of Thimphu.
I also wish to place on record our appreciation of the stewardship
of the former Chair, Sri Lanka, of our Association. We have seen
significant forward movement during their tenure.
I would like to thank the Secretary General of SAARC, H.E. Dr. Sheel
Kant Sharma, and his very able team of officers and staff, for the
valuable preparatory work that has gone into making a success out of
the Summit and its preceding meetings.
In considering the Periodic Analytical Report before us, I wish to,
at the outset, commend the Secretary General for presenting a very
comprehensive assessment of the progress achieved in SAARC on
various issues of regional cooperation since the last session of the
Standing Committee.
As several issues raised in the report would be revisited under
specific agenda items, I would like to restrict our intervention, at
this stage, to general comments on some of the key issues raised in
the Report. Our specific comments would be made against individual
agenda items.
In perusing the report it becomes evident that valuable progress has
been achieved in developing a regional framework of cooperation in
areas such as environment, energy, agriculture and rural
development, food security, health, trade and transportation. SAARC
has also facilitated slow but sure steps towards greater cooperation
in the security sector and in the prevention of trafficking of women
and child development. Increased people-to-people interaction has
been facilitated by greater cultural and social exchanges under the
auspices of SAARC.
The thrust of most of these regional projects and activities is at
grassroots levels where the results are less visible but far more
significant and rewarding. Each of the areas of cooperation under
SAARC has a direct bearing on the lives and livelihoods of the
people of our region. Our leaders have correctly identified the
focus of SAARC as being development oriented.
In the last few years, SAARC has also been laying the institutional
framework for greater regional cooperation. For the first time,
regional institutions are being created in the form of the South
Asian Regional Standards Organization (SARSO) in Dhaka, the SAARC
Arbitration Council in Islamabad, the SAARC Development Fund (SDF)
in Thimphu and the South Asian University in New Delhi.
In this 25th year of SAARC, we can take satisfaction from the fact
that SAARC has evolved into a service provider for the economic and
development needs of the people of the region.
At the same time, this milestone also provides us with an
opportunity to introspect on the experience of the last 25 years and
the course we need to chart in the future not only to maintain, but
to accelerate, the momentum SAARC has achieved in the recent past.
Let me say that we deeply appreciate the very substantive
contributions made by the Chair, Bhutan, in the conceptualization of
the main theme of our current Summit: i.e. towards a green and happy
South Asia. Bhutan has led the way among all of us in enshrining
respect and sensitivity for environmental concerns and the
preservation of our precious environmental space. The inspiration
and the initiative of Bhutan in this area, and indeed, in all the
preparations undertaken to make this Summit possible, are genuinely
appreciated. Let us derive impetus from this to work towards a
Summit Declaration that is focused, incisive, visionary, and
future-oriented as a lasting outcome of our Summit.
In concluding my opening remarks I wish to acknowledge the
contribution of the Secretary General and the Secretariat in
steering SAARC through the extensive range of its programmes and
activities with the professional skill and expertise we have come to
expect. To have achieved this with a “zero growth budget”, that has
rendered our regional enterprise cost effective and productive, is
indeed creditable.
Thank You.
Thimphu
April 25, 2010 |
