VOL.VII, NO.11
NOVEMBER 1996

IGG Completes Second Round Of Trade Negotiations Trade Negotiations aimed at extending wide and deeper tariff concessions

The Meeting will be remembered in the history of SAARC as another important milestone in its journey towards trade liberalisation in the region and in transition from

SAPTA to SAFTA.

THE FOURTH MEETING of the Inter-Governmental Group (IGG) on Trade Liberalisation held at the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu on 29-30 November, 1996, successfully concluded the Second Round of Trade Negotiations under SAPTA after detailed discussions and in-depth bilateral trade negotiations. The Meeting will be remembered in the history of SAARC as another important mile-stone in its journey towards trade liberalisation in the region and in transition from SAPTA to SAFTA. The meeting, held under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary U.S. Bhatia, Ministry of Commerce of India was opened by Director, SAARC Secretariat Ashok K. Attri and attended by all SAARC Member Countries. Welcoming the delegates to the SAARC Secretariat, Secretary-General Naeem U Hasan emphasised the crucial role played by the Group towards trade liberalisation in the region and realising the goal of launching the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) preferably by the year 2000.

It may be recalled that as per the mandate of the Council of Ministers, the Second Round of Trade Negotiations under SAPTA began with the First Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Group held in Colombo on 14-15 March, 1996. The process of trade negotiations was carried forward by the Second and Third Meetings of the Group held in Islamabad and New Delhi on 7-8 September, 1996 and 25-26 October, 1996 respectively. The Group has recommended that the Schedules finalised at the conclusion of the Second Round of Trade Negotiations under SAPTA should enter into force latest by 1 March 1997.

The Group has also recommended that the Third Round of Trade Negotiations under SAPTA should be launched immediately for further broadening and deepening the Schedules of Concessions. It may be recalled that with the Trade Negotiations(Cont. from previous page)conclusion of the First Round of Trade Negotiations under SAPTA, covering 226 items, the Agreement on SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement entered into force on 7th December, 1995 which covered 226 items. The Schedules agreed to in the Second Round will increase this figure manifold. The Group also recommended that the First Meeting of the Committee of Participants, established under Article 9 of SAPTA Agreement, should meet at the earliest to review the progress achieved in the implementation of SAPTA Agreement.

It also recommended that this meeting should be held at the SAARC Secretariat, Kathmandu. The report of the Kathmandu Meeting and the National Schedules of Concessions as finalised and adopted by the Group, will be considered by the Seventeenth Session of the Council of Ministers scheduled to be held in New Delhi in December this year.


Technical Committee On Rural DevelopmentCarry Out Evaluation Of Its Functioning

ESTABLISHMENT OF "SHELTERNET" EMPHASISEDTHE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE on Rural Development met at its Fifteenth Meeting in Kathmandu on 28 November 1996. The Committee reviewed the status of establishment of "SHELTERNET" (Shelter Information Network) and recommended to the Standing Committee the approval of the funding arrangements. Matters relating to the establishment of SHELTERNET has been under discussion since 1993 following the meeting of the New Delhi Expert Group Meeting, worked out the details of the network including the estimated expenditure (US$ 310,000) to operationalise the network.

The Committee evaluated its functioning since its establishment and observed that during the last decade its activities suffered due to:

a) isolated selection and their short term nature;
b) inadequate participation;
c) lack of resources to implement projects; and
d) weak monitoring of implementation of recommendations/ decisions.

guessThe meeting identified several measures for improving functioning of the Committee in future. They include selection of activities in line with the priority list and clearly spelt out targets; adequate and wider participation; implementation of projects/decisions; interaction and coordination among national, sectoral focal points and SAARC Secretariat. While considering the list of priority areas for its future activities, the meeting identified issues such as income and employment generation on a sustained basis; creation of assets, enhancing availability of credit access to the same by the rural poor; human resources development in the rural areas; development and maintenance of rural infrastructure; development and introduction of appropriate technology to enhance productivity in the rural areas; rural environment, issues related to diversification of rural economies; and gender perspective of rural development.

These areas, the Committee decided, would form the core of its future activities.The meeting was inaugurated by the Minister for Local Development of Nepal, Kamal Thapa. In his inaugural statement, the Minister stressed that at the threshold of a new millennium, SAARC countries should focus on the challenges of rural development with a sense

Meeting of the Technical Committee on Transport, Kathmandu. 4-5 Eleventh Meeting of the Technical Committee on Women in Development, New Delhi. 9-11 Workshop on studies conducted by NIRD, India on Rural Housing and Transfer of Technology, Hyderabad (India). 10-12 Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights, Islamabad. 14-15 Seventeenth Session of the Programming Committee, New Delhi. 16-18 Twenty-second Session of the Standing Committee, New Delhi 16-18 Workshop on Urban Air Quality, Islamabad. 19-20 Seventeenth Session of the Council of Ministers, New Delhi. 30-31Meeting of Experts on Low Cost Housing and Building Technology, Kathmandu.


Technical Committee On Science And Technology

MeetsESTABLISHMENT OF "SAARC BIOTECHNOLOGY COUNCIL" PROPOSED.
During its Fourteenth Meeting held on November 5-6, 1996 in Islamabad, the Technical Committee on Science and Technology reviewed the activities since its last meeting. The Committee decided on a new time-frame for holding of meeting of Experts on Energy Modeling with Special Reference to Rural Areas; Meeting of Experts in the areas of Astronomy and Astrophysics for Policy Makers and Experts; and Meeting of Experts on Bio-processing of Food and Enzymes. The Committee noted that some of the State-of-the-Art Reports were not completed due to lack of information by Member Countries, including those on

(i) Building Materials and Technologies;
(ii) Integrated Management of Tannery Wastes;
(iii) Selected Rural Technologies, Food Processing Technologies and Handicrafts;
(iv) Local Electronic Products in the SAARC region; and
(v) Biotechnology. The meeting fixed new time-frames to complete these reports and member states were urged to provide requisite information in this regard.

The Committee decided that the Directories on Specialised Analytical Instrumentation Facilities and Techniques; Processing Engineer-ing /Pilot Plant Facilities; Agro-Food Processing Area; and S&T activities of SAARC countries should be finalised in 1997. Bangladesh and Pakistan recommended one project proposal each i.e. Utilisation of Wind Energy, and Connectivity of the member states through INTERNET for establishing the Information Processing System and Databases on Technologies, for funding under the South Asian Development Fund. The Committee requested respective countries to provide details of these projects for submission to the Council. While evaluating the functioning of the Committee since its inception, the Committee made suggestions and recommendations to improve its functioning.

The importance of various activities including Symposia, Workshops, Training Courses and experts Group Meetings which have helped to create awareness of the unlimited potential of new technologies was recognised by the Committee. The Committee proposed two activities to be funded under SAARC-Japan Special Fund.The meeting was inaugurated by Lt. Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf, Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology of Pakistan. He highlighted the problems prevalent in the SAARC region and the common goals of the SAARC member states. The Secretary encouraged the Committee to take steps towards formulating programmes which would have a regional impact towards achieving SAARC goals such as eradication of poverty in the region by the year 2002 A.D.Delegates from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka attended the meeting. Director, Kunzang C. Namgyel represented the SAARC Secretariat at the meeting.


Secretary-General Visits South KoreaOf late, SAARC has attracted attention of the outside world and the interest in SAARC is growing day by day in the activities of the Association. The Korean Govern-ment invited Secretary-General, Naeem U. Hasan to visit Seoul from October 30 to November 2, 1996. During his three-day visit to Seoul, Secretary-General delivered a lecture on SAARC and its activities at the Korean Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security which is run by the Korean Foreign Office. The talk attended by a large number of senior officials from the Korean Foreign Ministry covered important subjects on the evolution of SAARC; its organizational set-up; its main activities with focus on cooperation in the economic, trade and social sectors; and its growing contacts with regional and international organizations. During the course of his visit, Secretary-General also met the Ambassadors of the SAARC countries based in Seoul. The Secretary-General also met the Korean Vice Foreign Minister over a dinner hosted in his honour. Included in the Secretary-General's programme were visits to industrial establishments of LG Electronics and Daewoo Motor Plants.

He was also taken on a visit to Pan Moon Jeom and was given a briefing on the de-militarized zone between North and South Korea.

For Further Information: SAARC Newsletter Team: Other meetings held in November: SAARC Secretariat (Information & Media Division) Editorial Board: Naeem U. Hasan, Ahmed Latheef i. Workshop on Wild Life P.O.Box4222, Kathmandu, Nepal; Tel.977-1-221794 R.P. Jayasooriya, Suresh Pradhan Management, Deheradun, Fax: 227033 & 223991; Tlx: 2560 SAARC NP Layour, Design & Production: Muhammad Yousaf 18-22 Nov. E-mail: saarc@mos.com.np; Publisher: SAARC Secretariat ii. SAARC Economic Confer- Net: http://www.south-asia.com/saarc (Information and Media Division) ence, New Delhi, 19-21 Nov


Secretary-General Addresses The World Food Summit

Hasan addressing the World Food Summit
SAARC SECRETARY-GENERAL NAEEM U. HASAN addressed the World Food Summit in Rome on November 14, 1996.The Secretary-General in his Address presented the salient features of the common position adopted by the SAARC Agriculture Ministers at their meeting held in Islamabad from October 8 to 9 before the Summit which, inter-alia, recognized that the right to adequate and nutritional food is the basic right of each individual, and made an appeal for action at all levels - global, regional and national - to rid the world from hunger and malnutrition. The Secretary-General while highlighting the widespread food insufficiency and malnutrition in different parts of the world, informed the Summit of the resolve of SAARC Countries to eradicate poverty from the region preferably by the year 2002, and touched upon SAARC efforts towards achieving this goal.

He also made a special reference to the SAARC Food Security Reserve established in 1993 with the prime objective of providing foodgrains for meeting emergencies in member countries.Referring to the complex issues before the World Food Summit, the Secretary-General observed that a comprehensive and serious approach was required to address them. He called upon all nations individually and the entire international community collectively to rise to meet the challenge with a single minded determination and firm resolve to make the dream of a world free from hunger and malnutrition a reality.


VISITORS TO THE SAARC SECRETARIAT

With the signing of the SAARC-EC Cooperation Agreement in July this year, the interaction between the two organizations has intensified. Visit of Prof. M. Foucher, France based EU Consultant to the Secretariat early this month could be seen as a move forward in this direction. Secretary-General who received Prof. Foucher at his office on November 5 discussed ways and means to promote the cooperative relationship between SAARC and the European Commission in the days ahead.Non-Governmental Organizations, whether based in the SAARC region or elsewhere, have always enjoyed a welcome gesture at the Secretariat. Secretary-General, during the month, received a delegation of International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF), United Kingdom headed by Dr. Rev. Traer, General Secretary. The delegation briefed the Secretary-General on the activities of the NGO which is basically involved in protection of human rights and social welfare activities globally, including in some countries of South Asia.

Another delegation from the British Department of Trade and Industry, Southern Asia Advisory Group (SAAG) which was on a bilateral mission to Nepal also visited the Secretariat this month. The delegation led by Iain Dale, OBE, Chairman and Member, SAAG was accompanied by the British Ambassador to Nepal. Besides informing the Group about the SAARC activities and programmes in general, the Secretary-General highlighted the on-going economic cooperation under the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangements (SAPTA) and the resolve of the Member States to the realization of a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) by the year 2005 latest.November was a month of reunion for families at the Secretariat and a period for revival of the old friendship between them as two of its previous members visited the Secretariat during the same month. These included Y. K. Silwal from Nepal who served as Secretary-General SAARC for the period January 1994 to December 1995, and Ahmed Saleem from the Maldives as Director from April 1990 to September 1993.

Secretary-General warmly received both the visitors and apprised them of the latest initiatives undertaken by him in streamlining and strengthening of the Secretariat.Another dignitary who called on the Secretary-General this month was the Canadian Ambassador to India and Nepal Stanley Gooch. During the meeting, Secretary-General apprised the Ambassador of the latest position on the SAARC-CIDA Cooperation Agreement which is currently under consideration by the SAARC Member States. Other visitors included Director-General, Housing Urban Develop-ment, Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning, Umesh Malla, accompanied by Human Settlement Adviser, Madhab Mathema, from UNCHS (Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya) and Senior Regional Policy Adviser, UNDP Regional office for Poverty Alleviation Programme in Kathmandu, K. R. Venugopal.


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