Afghanistan to join SAARC : Food bank, regional university on summit agenda

Upcoming 14th SAARC Summit being held in New Delhi on April 3-4 would ratify proposals on establishing regional food bank and a South Asian University, while a joint declaration would formalise entry of Afghanistan as the eighth member of SAARC, Foreign Ministry sources said Wednesday.

The Summit meeting agenda would also particularly consider on the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and relaxing of visa policy between the member countries. Other major agendas include controlling terrorism and bolstering connectivity among the member states.

The member countries have already exercised and agreed on the three major issues in the ministerial and secretary level talks earlier and a meeting of the state heads would formalise them during the Summit meeting.

The proposed regional food bank would be established to meet the growing pressure on food security in the region. "The food bank will come into operation to meet the exigencies during calamities so that the SAARC member states could immediately tackle the crisis," the source said.

Once the deal is finalised, the food bank will start initially with a reserve of 241,580 tons of food grain, which would be gradually increased.

According to the proposal, India will contribute 153,200 tons of food grain while Pakistan and Bangladesh 40,000 tons each, Sri Lanka and Nepal 4,000 tons each, Maldives 200 tons and Bhutan 180 tons of food grain.

Connectivity to bolster economic ties through freer movement of goods and enhancing people-to-people contact between the regional countries will also be among the thrust areas in the next month's SAARC summit.

The three aspects of connectivity will be physical connectivity in terms of concrete infrastructural projects, economic connectivity through freer movement of goods and trade, and connectivity of ideas and people through increased people to people contact rather than a mere inter-governmental process.

For the first time, five observers from China, Japan, Korea, USA and the European Union will be attending the summit.

During the meeting, modalities are expected to be worked out in the preparatory meeting for operationalising a 'SAARC development fund' by wrapping up the proposed 100 million dollars fund for poverty alleviation in SAARC countries and South Asia development fund.

Under the proposed telemedicine network project the hospitals in SAARC countries would be connected to the super-speciality hospitals in India.

Source: The Rising Nepal