Bangladesh will help Cirdap construct a new complex having an international conference centre and dormitory to accommodate any high level dignitaries, said LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan yesterday.

"We have observed that Cirdap (Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific) auditorium has become an important venue for serious policy dialogue and debates in Dhaka," he said at the 27th founding anniversary of Cirdap at its auditoriumin the city.

With its convenient location and beautiful garden, the Chameli House can be developed as an important centre for policy consultations and cross fertilisation of ideas, he said following Cirdap's director general's proposal for constructing a Cirdap complex within the existing campus.

"We reiterate our full support to the centre and assure our full cooperation for its smooth functioning in Dhaka for the years to come," said Mannan Bhuiyan as chief guest of the ceremony.

With huge network in the field of rural development Cirdap, as a prime regional institution, has vast potentials to offer the member countries through mutual collaboration and cooperation, he pointed out.

Economic growth is necessary but not the only condition for poverty reduction, Mannan Bhuiyan said, adding, "Perhaps, for this reason the Asia-Pacific region, despite being one of the fastest growing regions in the

world is still beset with acute poverty."

Considering the fact that poverty is disproportionately concentrated in rural areas of the region, Cirdap has a vital role to play as a pioneering regional organisation to facilitate coordination of policies and activities related to rural development and poverty alleviation, he added.

Dr Durga P Paudyal, Cirdap's director general, said in the last 27 years the inter-governmental organisation completed over 300 projects in which over 200 research reports have been published while over 5000 rural development functionaries have been given training or exposure to new approaches of community development in different countries.

Cirdap also developed new strategy in the context of new challenges to specify the methodology and procedure for realising its mission to assist national action, promote regional cooperation and act as servicing agency at the regional level, he noted.

In his welcoming speech, Dr Durga said Cirdap is also developing a mechanism to connect all member countries in knowledge development process.

Dr B Sudhakar Rao, director (training) of Cirdap, also spoke at the function chaired by Rafiqul Islam, secretary to Rural Development and Cooperatives Division.