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$1.3m budget proposed for Saarc secretariat

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The Saarc programming committee has proposed a $1.3 million budget for its secretariat while recommending the agenda for the 13th Saarc Summit.
A two-day meeting of the committee comprising Saarc director generals from the seven member countries recommended relaxing visa regime, establishing Saarc Development Fund (SDF), common strategy for disaster management, and some issues on agriculture, tourism and health as the summit agenda.
Having about 50 items on the agenda, the committee unanimously adopted the format agreements to be signed between the Saarc headquarters and the member countries, hosting 10 regional Saarc bodies, for legal coverage for their smooth functioning.
The meeting that ended yesterday also recommended about 100 guidelines for the technical committees, working groups and regional centres to rejuvenate Saarc activities.
The Saarc Standing Committee, comprising the foreign secretaries of the Saarc countries, will review the proposals and submit them for the consideration of the Council of Ministers at its meeting on November 11.
“The regional centres were having problems as those were functioning without any agreement with the host countries,” Ruhul Amin, director general (DG) of Saarc, said at a briefing at Hotel Sonargaon after yesterday's meeting.
Although some officials of the member countries at first opposed to adopt the format and suggested sending it for experts' opinion, they unanimously finalised and adopted the format upon Bangladesh's insistence.
Bangladesh is the headquarters of two Saarc bodies on agriculture and meteorology.
The meeting also emphasised on the solution of funding, “a big problem for the implementation of different Saarc programmes in the region,” Amin, who chaired the meeting, told reporters.
The Saarc finance ministers will meet in Islamabad in the first quarter of 2006 to formulate the financing mechanism, the meeting decided.
Instead of proliferated funds there should be a single fund under an umbrella, Amin said, adding that the committee recommended constituting SDF instead of South Asia Development Fund (SADF).
On relaxing visa regime, the Saarc DG said the meeting decided to liberalise the visa regime, facilitating easy people-to-people contact to boost interaction among the SouthAsians.
“But we did not go into specific,” he said, adding that higher Saarc committee will take decision in this regard.
The committee also discussed enhancing people's conduct, exchange of professionals' views and involving the civil society bodies in Saarc activities, and agreed to launch a website on Saarc agricultural information.
Ruhul Amin said the meeting agreed to have a television documentary titled “Saarc in the New Millennium” and other joint productions on TV and radio
in observance of South Asia Tourism Year 2005. The documentary is to be broadcast simultaneously in the region in December as a campaign for promoting tourism.
On Saarc preparation for facing Tsunami, Amin said the member countries have appreciated Bangladesh's building of the Meteorological Research Centre while all Saarc members decided to develop its capacity.
The committee decided to hold Saarc ministerial meetings on agriculture, finance and planning, environment and commerce after the summit.
The commerce and environment ministry meetings will be held in Bangladesh while the finance and planning meetings will be held in Pakistan after the summit.
Expert groups will meet in Dhaka next month to discuss regional framework mechanism for early warning system and disaster management.
Zahirul Haq, DG of External Publicity Wing of Bangladesh foreign ministry, and Reaz Hamidullah, Saarc director, were present at the briefing.