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National seminar on "SAARC: A Vision for the Future and SAARC: Nepalese Perspective"
Organised by Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA)
A one-day national seminar on "SAARC:
A Vision for the Future and SAARC:
Nepalese Perspective" was organised
by Institute of Foreign Aff airs (IFA), in
association with the Ministry of Foreign
Aff airs, at the Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur on
March 27, 2007.
The seminar, which was held on the eve of
the 14th SAARC Summit, was focussed on
implementing the charter objectives of the
regional body. Experts from various fi elds
attended the seminar, which was formally
inaugurated by the then Hon'ble Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign
Aff airs, K. P. Sharma Oli. Mr. Oli was also
the Chief Guest at the opening session.
Opening Session
Chief Guest Mr. Oli inaugurated the seminar by lighting a
traditional lamp. Delivering his opening address, Mr. Oli said
that the third decade of SAARC was termed as the decade
of implementation. He said poverty reduction was still a
formidable challenge in South Asia and called the member
states for a concerted action.
Terming SAFTA (South Asia Free Trade Area) as an
important milestone for the regional progress, he said
that it had brought great hopes to the member states.
He, however, showed his serious concern over the dismally
low trade volume (5%) of the region as compared to
other economic blocks. He emphasised the need for rapid
socio-economic transformation of the region by
identifying and implementing regional and sub-regional
projects in all possible sectors of the SAARC He called for the
regional body to focus on connectivity and encourage peopleto-
people contact for enhancing business confidence.
Delving on social evils, he said terrorism, drug traffi cking and
traffi cking in women and children, money laundering and
other trans-national crimes must be brought under control
through concerted eff orts. Highlighting the region's energy
defi ciency, he stressed the inter-connectivity of power grids
and development of trans-border gas and oil pipelines.
He also called for exploring and utilising the unlimited
hydropower potential in Nepal to meet the region's ever
growing energy demand.
Delivering his address, Acting Foreign Secretary Mr. Gyan
Chandra Acharya expressed the view that SAARC had
many opportunities and challenges. According to him, if the challenges
were dealt with prudently, the region would be a world model. He shed
light on the importance of promoting regional cooperation for the overall
development of the entire region. He said that the country like Nepal
should look for strong bilateral relationship, maximisation of national
interest through regional cooperation and enhancement of overall
interest.
In his welcome address, Prof. Dr. Gopal Pokharel, Executive Director
of IFA, laid focus on the implementation of the objectives of SAARC and
called for furthering regional cooperation. He, however, said that despite
having geographical proximity and almost similar historical background,
development activities and foreign policies, SAARC member states had
not been able to move ahead hand in hand to promote mutual areas of
interest.
He was of the opinion that even after completion of two decades of its
establishment, SAARC had not been able to come up as a strong regional
body. He emphasised that if SAARC were to deal eff ectively with the
emerging uncertainty and chaotic political and economic scenario in
mitigating the suff erings of the people, there was no policy option left
but to globalise trade policies based on the cooperative strategies.
Highlighting the signifi cance of political freedom in the region, he said
that the regional organisation had to adopt poverty alleviation as an
important agenda. He also urged the member states to formulate suitable
technological policies to minimise economic disorder. He emphasised the
need for devising suitable machanisms to ensure eff ective delivery.
Earlier, welcoming the Chief Guest, distinguished guests and other
invitees, Ms. Anjan Shakya, Deputy Executive Director of IFA, said
that regionalism both as concept and policy was gradually gaining ground
with the realisation of its collective goals worldwide.
Highlighting important charters of SAARC, she said that the regional
organisation was unable to create feasible outcomes for which it was
created. Ms. Shakya added that SAARC needed to be a viable instrument
of peace, good neighbourly relations and vehicle for socio-economic
transformation in the region.
Talking about reduction of poverty and economic progress in the SAARC,
she said that SAARC member states had to share their experiences. She
highlighted that trade, in a broader sense, needed to be promoted through
mutual agreements on cross-boarder movement of people and goods,
improvement of infrastructure and strengthening mutual trust through
holding dialogues and providing assistance Emphasising the vital role of
SAARC in the overall progress of the region, she urged the member states
to promote the people's wellbeing in the region and raise their living
standard by accelerating economic growth, social progress and cultural
development. She was of the opinion that the region needed to be more
vibrant and dynamic to fi ght against all the emerging issues at all times.
She also stressed the need for strengthening connectivity among
the member states to promote mutual cooperation and assistance in
economic, social and scientific fields.
Working Session
The inaugural session of the seminar was
followed by the working session. The working
session was divided into two parts. In the fi rst
part of the session, imminent scholar Prof.
Dr. Shreedhar Khatry, former Executive
Director of IFA, presented a working paper
entitled "SAARC: Vision for the Future." The
fi rst part of the working session was chaired
by Dr. Prasksh Sharan Mahat, former
Minister of State for Foreign Aff airs. In
the second part, Acting Foreign Secretary
Mr. Gyan Chandra Acharya presented his
paper on "SAARC: Nepalese Perspective."
The second part of the session was chaired
by Mr. Ram Hari Joshi, former Education
Minister.
Paper Presentation
Presenting his paper, Prof. Dr. Khatry suggested that certain
infrastructures like energy, and transportation should be
developed, without which economic growth was impossible
in SAARC. He also highlighted free trade, liberalization, nontariff
barriers, and signifi cant linkages of SAFTA with private
sector investment. He called for the member states of the
regional body to focus on regional connectivity to give a
boost to the region's economy. However, in the case of Nepal,
the veteran scholar recommended some vital mechanisms
to compensate revenue losses and attract more private
investments, as the free trade alone failed to yield much.
He said that the region was full of fertile minds but the
governments and inter-governmental institutions were
not able to recognize their ideas. Emphasising the need to
strengthen the institutional mechanism, he urged the regional
organisation to bring it to the people's level. Pinpointing the
weaknesses of the regional organisation, Prof. Khatry said that
SAARC was very weak in terms of inter-state linkages due to
lack of proper monitoring of policies and programmes.
Floor Discussion
From the fl oor, experts from various fi elds made their
comments on the paper. Dr. Mohan Man Sainju, former
Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission
(NPC) and former Ambassador, said the author neglected
the role of NGOs in the region's development eff orts. He was
also of the view that the regional organisation's policies, plans
and programmes had to be made implementable. The author
agreed with the points made by Dr. Sainju in terms of making
SAARC's programmes, plans and policies implementable.
Commenting on Dr. Khatry's paper, Prof. Dr. Soorya
Lal Amatya said the paper portrayed only rosy pictures
and blamed him for laying much focus on the achievements
made by India. Dr. Amatya further said that the author didn't
highlight political situation of the region.
In response to these queries, the author agreed that his
presentation was a little bit rosy. According to him, he was
simply trying to present the hard facts, the trends and the
diffi culties all together in his presentation. Prof. Khatry
said that if the diffi culties were not looked at minutely, the
potential would not be realised. He expressed the view that
the future could not be understood without having realised
the past. In terms of his emphasis on India, he said it was
automatic, as the country was powerful in the region. He
even said that India was unsure of its power and felt that
it was always undermined by its neighbours. In regard to
political situation of the region, the author conceded the fact
that he didn't mention about the political situation of Nepal,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. However, he said
that when he mentioned Bangladesh's corruption, present
situation and governance, that would obviously indicate the
political situation of the region as a whole.
Dr. Keshav Raj Jha, former Ambassador, raised a question
regarding observers of the regional body. In response to the
question, the author said that the SAARC made a mistake in
trying to get countries like the USA, Japan and the rest as
observers. He called it a false start on the part of SAARC. He
suggested that they (observers) had to be dialogue partners
rather than observers. The author asked how the member
states of the regional organisation would deal with Japan,
the United States (US), the European Union (EU), South
Korea, and China by making them simply passive listeners.
He further counteracted what the importance of observers
would be when they were not allowed to speak in the forum.
He suggested that South Asia should attract others for
political security and economic reasons.
Mr. Lal Babu Yadav, a lecturer of Patan Campus, asked
what the Indian role for developmental activities in the
SAARC was. Answering his query, the author said that being a
larger power, India was always put in a very diffi cult situation.
He said that when India made any proposal in South Asia,
it would be blamed for having hegemonic ambition, if not,
it would be labelled as lack of leadership. He said that the
real challenge for India was to bring about changes in others'
attitude towards it, change its working procedures and
diplomacy.
Dr. Kamal Krishna Joshi, Chairman of University
Grants Commission and former Vice Chancellor of
Tribhuvan University (TU), raised diff erent issues related
to SAARC University, mutual recognition of the degrees of
all the universities in member countries, inclusion of SAARC
chapters in school level curriculum of member states and
establishment of Center of Excellence. The author agreed
with Dr. Joshi's views and lauded him for his interesting
comments.
Ms. Indira Shrestha asked whether there was provision
of women scholarships in SAARC University in general
and throughout the universities of the region in particular.
Responding to her question, he clarifi ed that many people
in Nepal were unaware of the availability of scholarships.
He said that there were so many scholarships available like
RCSS scholarships, Mahabul Haq Award, Kodikara Award, Asia
Fellowship Program, South Asia Women College, etc.
Mr. Ima Baru, representative from Pakistani Embassy,
commented on the exclusion of economic progress by
Pakistan in the paper. Then Dr. Khatry asked him to go through
the study done by PIDE and SAFTA. The author accepted
that Pakistan's economic progress could not be neglected.
He informed that Pakistan, which was almost zero once in
Foreign Exchange Reserve, had gone up very high now.
Prof. Dr. Ananta Raj Poudyel asked about the bilateral issues
that were discussed in the past SAARC Summits. Answering
his query, the author said that several serious bilateral issues
were discussed in the Summits. He also informed that a
number of issues had emerged and agreements were made
out of them. He further disclosed that since the last few years,
bilateral issues had crept into offi cial discussion at SAARC
forums.
Mr. Bishwa Kanta Mainali, President of Nepal Bar
Association (NBA) claimed that the member countries had
given low priority to SAARC. Accepting his insightful comment,
the author said that it was useless to conduct seminars just
only on the eve of the SAARC Summit. The member countries
had to discuss and debate about it regularly on specifi c issues.
In response to 'curtailing dependency', the author said that
there was dependency due to Nepal's political weakness,
incapability and internal problems.
Mr. Dev Raj Dahal, chief of FES, Nepal, commented on the
defi cit of political willpower among the member countries
of SAARC. Accepting his genuine comment, Prof. Khatry
highlighted that Mr. Dahal's thoughts were very provoking
and useful and would continue to remain useful in future,
too.
Ms. Indu Acharya, a lecturer of TU, raised a question of
establishing SAARC University in Nepal and the dictatorship
of India in the provision of scholarships in the university on
the basis of population. In response to her comment, the
author said the proposal report was not prepared by Indian
but by Bangladeshi. In regard to the location of the university,
he said that there were certain criteria to be fulfi lled for that
and Nepal could not do it.
Prof. Rabindra Khanal had a question on the mechanism
that would lead us to the people or grassroots institutions. He
was informed that there were apex bodies and recognized
bodies at the SAARC level which worked as grass-roots
institutions. He further elaborated that there were various
organizations in SAARC demanding recognitions which was
quite a challenging task for the SAARC and its governments
to manage properly.
Dr. Shreedhar Gautam, Associate Professor of Patan
Multiple Campus, wanted to know about distribution of
economic growth in the region. The author said that his
paper was not focusing on specifi c issues like economic
matters rather it was general in nature.
Chairman's Remarks
Chairman of the session, Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat off ered
his concluding remarks. Thanking all the guests and
participants, Mr. Chairman said that the vision and strategy
for third decade of the SAARC was pertinent. He also made a
very important remark on the progress made by SAARC, the
challenges and opportunities of SAARC and the strategies
which should have been adopted to combat the challenges
by the association in the days to come. Dr. Mahat revealed
the fact that the economic growth achieved by the SAARC
(especially by India, Bangladesh and Pakistan) was not due to
regional cooperation but due to the impact of globalization,
liberal trade policy they had adopted and the investment
friendly environment there. He also mentioned that in 1990,
even India had less that 6% economic growth. He was quite
optimistic about Nepal's economic growth (6%) and said that
the country would progress soon if there were investment
friendly environment.
Dr. Mahat also said that the smaller countries like Nepal
would be benefi ted from bigger India if there were real and
tangible cooperation in terms of trade transportation (both
air and surface), energy, investment and technology.
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