Bangladesh for recasting Saarc role

Bangladesh yesterday stressed on efficiently recasting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation's (Saarc) role in context to changing realities to make it more effective and result-oriented so that it could significantly contribute to the region's development.

"Today Bangladesh reiterates its firm commitment and political will to take the Saarc agenda forward," said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, urging members states to rise above differences and reaffirm adequate political will to make it a "people-centric" organisation.

He was addressing a seminar, "Saarc at 30: Achievements, Potentials and Challenges", organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) with its chairman, Munshi Faiz Ahmed, in the chair.

Shahriar also called for translating Saarc's 30 years' of acquired knowledge, expertise and institutional mechanism into something meaningful and beneficial.

He said the Asia-Pacific region would be global economy and trade's centre of gravity and its lucrative production and supply chains were increasingly gaining importance.

"In South Asia, we cannot afford to be left outside the integrated Asian production and supply chain," he said, adding that in the global context of unprecedented changes, particularly within business and trade dynamics, all need to work relentlessly to enhance regional connectivity.

Shahriar also stressed the importance of collectively overcoming emerging challenges, ensuring sustainable supply of food, fuel and finance and social safety net programmes for the marginalised and increasing trade, investment and employment to fuel economic growth.

Despite the global economic slowdown in the last couple of years, he said south Asian economies experienced a long period of impressive growth while it was one of the fastest growing regions.

"Our challenges are also formidable. We have, in the region, presence of the highest number of poor and undernourished in the world and we are vulnerable to emerging global challenges like terrorism, radicalisation and violent extremism, climate change and natural disasters," he said.

Shahriar recalled some of Saarc's important achievements including the Saarc Framework Agreement on Energy Cooperation (Electricity) and establishment of the South Asian Regional Standards Organisation secretariat in Dhaka.

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute President Farooq Sobhan chaired the seminar's working session while Apex Footwear Ltd Chairman Syed Manzur Elahi, Prof Delwar Hossain of Dhaka University's international relations department and Munshi gave three presentations.