SAARC Summit important regional event of the new millennium
Emphasis on meeting commitments: Dr. Mahat

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 27: Nepal is all set to host the forthcoming summit of the heads of state and government of the seven South Asian nations beginning next week, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat told the press here this afternoon.

"We have already completed all preparations -- physical, logistic and substantive, that is, paper works for the summit," said Dr. Mahat, who will represent Nepal in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Council of Ministers.

The 11th SAARC Summit, slated for 4-6 January 2002, is important because it is reactivating the stalled process after a gap of three and a half years, Dr. Mahat said, adding, that it will now have to be "forward-looking and business-like, our emphasis will be on implementing our past commitments."

Explaining the agenda of the Summit, Dr. Mahat said, "This is the first such event of the new millennium in the region, so we will need to go into the thrust areas and make some tangible achievements."

Nepal believes that the regional economic process should be accelerated, Dr Mahat said and added that the fourth round of negotiation for the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement should begin fast. "Then the treaty framework for the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) should be finalised as early as the year 2002 or 2003."

He elaborated that the region should go into the free trade regime as soon as possible so that it will be possible to realise the vision of Economic Union as recommended by the Group of Eminent Persons or experts' group formed by the 9th SAARC Summit in Male. This is the age of regionalisation, which is the stepping stone for globalisation, Dr Mahat maintained.

"We have unparalleled human and natural resources which we should pool together for the welfare of the one-fifth of humanity living in the region," the Minister said. "But we are beset with the largest concentration of poverty and illiteracy and our share in the global trade is a dismal 1 per cent."

So, another theme of the Summit will be poverty alleviation--we need to prepare poverty profiles of the nations, Minister Mahat said. On the social agenda, Dr. Mahat said, two conventions relating to combating trafficking of women and children for prostitution and protecting children will be signed. "In the present global, regional and national contexts, terrorism will also figure in the discussion."

As a run up to the Summit, several meetings at different levels will begin from tomorrow. Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gyan Chandra Acharya will lead the Nepalese delegation to the programming committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow. A secretary level meeting will take place on Saturday and the SAARC Foreign Ministers will meet for two days before the Summit. Most delegates have arrived for the preparatory level meetings.

Dr. Mahat also informed of a full-proof arrangement for the security during the Summit.

To a question whether the bilateral sticking points will affect the Summit, Dr Mahat said: "I don't think that is going to affect the Summit. Bilateral issues are outside the purview of SAARC."

Dr. Mahat said that SAARC did not rule out sub-regional cooperation. "That can go along simultaneously."

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