XIth SAARC Summit
SAARC Summit to give boost to SAFTA

Kathmandu, Dec. 23 (RSS):The eleventh summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) taking place from January 4-6, 2002 in Kathmandu is believed to be instrumental in further consolidating and bringing to fruition the concept of South Asian Free Trade (SAFTA).

The need to help SAFTA materialise in the regison by 2001 had been felt during the ninth SAARC summit that was held from May 12-14, 1997 in Male, the capital of the Maldives.

The South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) had been instituted in April, 1993. The draft of SAPTA, in the form of the regional agreement of SAARC, had been prepared by the inter-governmental group on trade liberalisation constituted during the Sixth SAARC Summit held on December 21, 1991 in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.

Nepal is the first SAARC member country to ratify the agreement which came into force from December 7, 1995 after approval by all the SAARC member countries while Bangladesh is the last to ratify the agreement. Nepal had ratified the treaty on September 28, 1993.

The main objective of SAPTA is to simplify trade and economic activities at the regional level and to make them more accessible.

South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) is the initial step conceived for achieving the goal of SAFTA by gradually moving towards the realisation of SAARC customs union, common market and economic union.

There is a provision for four types of trading facilities under SAPTA which include reduction of customs tariff, proportional reduction of customs on all goods, expansion of customs and other necessary trade on the basis of various sector-wise division and trading preference by different means likely to promote mutual cooperation and conducting direct trade between the member countries.

So far the proposal for customs reduction has been approved for 226 different items as per the initiatives taken towards customs reduction in pursuant to the provision of preferential trade under SAPTA.

The fourteen items in which Nepal has given its consent for customs concession include gypsum, coal, medicines, natural rubber, leather goods, wooden furniture, dry fruits, fresh fruits, paper, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper, canned fish and chewing gum.

The Colombo summit in 1991 had given directives to prepare and give the final shape of the draft for the creation of a free trading area in the region by 2001.

The meeting of the SAARC Ministerial Council held in New Delhi in 1995 had decided to make efforts to give concrete shape to SAPTA and as a result of this an inter-governmental experts’ group was constituted in 1996.

The first meeting of the group held in Kathmandu in 1999 had prepared a draft treaty for free trade in the region.

The draft treaty has made provisions for fixing the time for the free trade, undertaking of trade reforms and compensating the revenue loss for providing trade security to least developed countries.

Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives have been considered as the least developed countries by SAARC.

It is expected that if SAPTA is realised during the Eleventh SAARC Summit, it will assist in bridging the growing trade imbalance in the region and reducing poverty which remains the major challenge for the region.

‘Shared ideals foster mutual understanding’

Kathmandu, Dec 22 (RSS): The fourth Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation (MIMST-EC) ministerial meeting was held in Yangon Friday.

The ministerial meeting was attended by Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh and Myanmar, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry of India, Minister Assisting Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka and Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.

Charge d’Affaires of the Royal Nepalese Embassy in Yangon Harishchandra Ghimire attended the meeting on behalf of Nepal as observer.

Inaugurating the meeting, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Union of Myanmar U Win Aung said that shared ideals for peace, freedom and economic well-being can be best attained by fostering greater understanding, good neighbourliness and meaningful cooperation amongst the countries of the sub-region.

He said that the core principles of respect for sovereign equality, territorial integrety, political independence, non-interference in internal affairs, peaceful co-existence and mutual benefit should serve as basic guidelines for cooperation within the bimst-ec countries.

The meeting also discussed Nepal’s request for full fledged membership of BIMST-EC.

The joint statement released at the end of the ministerial meeting states "We welcome the participation of the Kingdom of Nepal in this meeting as an observer and take note of the request by Nepal for membership of BIMST-EC, keeping in mind the moratorium on further expansion of membership until the end of 2002 and the criteria to be evolved on BIMST-EC membership."

After the meeting, the leaders of the delegations from member countries paid a joint courtesy call on Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt, Secretary-1, State Peace and Development Council of the Union of Myanmar.

The ministerial meeting was preceeded by the fourth BIMST-EC senior officials’ meeting from December 19-20.

Search, cordon continue; more suspects held

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 22: Security personnel continued their search and cordon operations in different parts of the country and they have arrested more suspects in the process. On Friday, 24 persons were arrested in six different districts.

The Defence Ministry says, eight persons, four each from Bijeshwori and Thankot, were arrested in Kathmandu today.

Similarly, nine persons from Lamahi in Dang, one each from Jogbudha and Navadurga of Dadeldhura, one in Jiri of Dolakha and one in Hajariya of Sarlahi districts were arrested for necessary investigations.

Nepali student receives award in America

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec 22: Dina Bangdel has received the "Distinguish Dissertation Award" for her Ph.D. dissertation on "Origin and Development of Buddhism in Nepal." She was placed in the second position among students of 80 universities of USA. She is the first Nepali to do a doctorate in the subject.

Bangdel, daughter of famous artist Lain Singh Bangdel, studied in the Ohio State University of United States of America.

She completed her Master’s Degree in South Asian Philosophy from the Wisconsin University and Bachelors Degree from Brin Mawor College of USA. She had completed her intermediate from Padma Kanya Campus, Kathmandu with the first position, which had earned her the Aishwarya Vidya Padak.

She is also the deputy director for the Buddhist Art Exhibition to be held in the County Museum of Los Angeles, USA, in 2004. She has also written a book, ‘Lain Bangdel, Fifty Years of Art’ – an artistic odyssey of her father.

Action taken against 1,800 drivers for traffic breach

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec 22: Some 1,800 drivers were taken action against by the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police in the last seven days for violation of traffic rules and regulations. The fines collected from them amounted to about Rs. 186,000.

Among those who had breached the traffic rules, five were using mobile phones while driving, three for drunken driving.

There were 53 accidents which killed three people, one left severely injured and 4 sustained major injuries. Twenty-six others had escaped with only minor injuries. Of the vehicles involved in the accident, 20 were motorcycles.

Meanwhile, according to the Valley Traffic Police, a 52-year-old man from Kavrepalanchowk district died while undergoing treatment at the Nepal Medical College, Atterkhel. He was found with fever and lying at the centre of Indra Chowk on Thursday. He was rushed to the hospital by an ambulance of same college but died the next day.

A 13-year-old girl was found dead at Batukobhairav of Lalitpur sub-metropolitan city. The unidentified girl was disabled and used to beg for living.

Similarly, in Nawalparasi, Bhawani Prasad Poudel, 38, of Mukundapur of the district died in a motorcycle accident. He was taken to Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, but succumbed to the injuries. The provided report says it was happened at the bridge of Kawasoti of Nawalparasi district.

Likewise, Ramesh Ale, 30, and Uddhav Joshi, 41, living in Dillibazaar were caught red-handed by the police with white heroine, brown sugar and three tablets of narcotics.

Santosh Guragain of Shantinagar, Kathmandu, was wounded after two unknownn persons assaulted him with khukuri. He has been taken to Bir Hospital and his condition is said to be serious. The police are looking for the assailants and are investigating on the cause of the attack.

Looking back into origin of SAARC

By Narendra Bikram Shaha, former foreign secretary

It is a matter of the 1980s. His late Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah was on a visit to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma. His Majesty the King received a letter from President of Bangladesh Zia Ur Rahman in March of the same year.

In the letter, President Rahman had proposed establishing a Regional Organisation of South Asian countries like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Europoean Union (EU) for the promotion of regional cooperation in South Asia.

Probably during the visit to Bangladesh, President Rahman and His late Majesty King Birendra had held discussions on it informally. Therefore as soon as the letter of President Rahman had been received His Majesty ordered the then Foreign Secretary Jagadish Shumsher Rana to visit India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to find the reaction of these countries. President Rahman had also sent letters to the heads of states of these countries and His late Majesty might have requested him to do so.

Although Pakistan had immediately supported the proposal put forth by Bangladesh, Pakistan was suspiciuos that the proposal might have been brought by Bangladesh in agreement with India. But when Pakistan understood the intentions of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, it agreed to establish the regional organisation.

On the other hand President Jayawardane of Sri Lanka was also hoping to acquire the membership of ASEAN, but as there was no hope for Sri Lanka to get ASEAN membeship as it was in the South Asian Region, President Jayawardane accepted the Bangladesh proposal.

Here is an interesting point that in the Bangladesh preliminary proposal Maldives was not included. When President Jayawardane proposed that we should also include the Indian Ocean Island of the Maldives in the organisation, it was also included.

Still more interesting is the fact that after India agreed to establishing the Regional Cooperation Organisation as it previously held the view that Bangladesh had brought the proposal in the gesture of China, Pakistan, the South Asian Regional Cooperation (SARC) came into being. But it took whole five years to add ‘Association’ or one more ‘A’ in SARC.

And finally, the first summit conference was held in Dhaka after the formal establishment of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985.

The proposal to establishment of the SARC Secretariat and the appointment of the General Secretary was proposed in the first summit conference itself for the Promotion of the Economic Cooperation in South Asia and expediting the SAARC activities.

The draft of the SAARC Charter was concluded by the Ministerial meeting in Thimpu and it was approved by the Heads of Sstates and Governments.

In the beginning discussion was held between the Heads of States and Governments to hold the summit conference in 2- 3 years and was agreed to hold it annually. After the first Summit in Dhaka, the turn to hold the Second Summit was that of Bhutan but as it informed its inability to hold the summit as it had no adequate physical infrastructure, the second summit was held in India.

The Third Summit was to be hosted by Maldives, but as it also informed its failure to hold because of various reasons, Nepal got the opportunity and responsibility too hold the Third SAARC Summit Conference.

I found that His Majesty was greatly worried regarding where to house the Heads of States and Governments after it was clear that Nepal will host the Third Summit.

His Majesty King Birendra himself visited the Tribhuwan University meeting hall to the Royal Nepal Academy Hall to see to select a meeting hall.

Finally, His Majesty fixed the Royal Nepal Academy meeting hall for the summit and every thing including stage decoration were carried out under the direct instruction of Their Majesties.

The various seven committees worked in coordination under the direction of the main committee for the preparation of the summit where as the security and transportation was in the responsibility of the Royal Nepal Army.

Likewise, what is worth recalling here is that Kathmandu got a torrential rain before four days of the summit. The meeting hall at the summit venue Royal Nepal Academy was waterlogged upto the waist. After the rain subsided His Majesty visited the places with gum boots on. We drained out all the water by calling fire brigade from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur. We were only assured after water was completely drained out with ten vehicles of the fire brigade. The Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff waited at the Academy until the all the water was drained out all night. It was auspicious for us to have rain because it washed away all the dirt and dust. The whole of Kathmandu got a clean and refreshed look.

The summit conference in Kathmandu concluded in a grand manner, the Heads of States and Heads of Government also commented that the third summit was hosted in a grand manner.

India and Pakistan are two of the SAARC’s’ powerful nations which both big in Asia and powerful. All the other members want peace and friendship between these two countries.

Although SAARC has stressed on poverty alleviation, there are own kinds of problems of the SAARC member nations. Separate programmes can be needed for addressing these problems in Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and Maldives.

The SAARC member countries have not raised issues at the United Nations on the SAARC programmes and activities with specificity. I think our issues should also be taken in the United Nations.

Once the Americans were also curious about SAARC, they also invited the secretary to dinners and to get information on the SAARC. But now the situation is different. Perhaps they have understood its importance and rationale.

SAARC is an important organisation to resolve common problems of children, women and social and human of the nations, but I cannot understand why expected developments have not been seen in its implementation.

Although network of regional cooperation has been developed in SAARC, but the habit of true cooperation is yet to be seen. I hope this will be materialised in the future. (RSS)