ADDRESS BY BEGUM KHALEDA ZIA
PRIME MINISTER OF PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OFBANGLADESH

Your Majesty,
Your Excellencies,
Mr. Secretary General,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I extend to all of you a warm welcome to Bangladesh . We are honoured and privileged to have you in our midst.

All of us are conscious at this hour of the catastrophes that have struck South Asia in recent times-Tsunami in India, Maldives and Sri Lanka; floods in Bangladesh and India earthquakes in Pakistan and India. All these have taken a huge toll in terms of life and property. Our heart goes out to the victims.

Each summit, in good times and in times of crisis, is an auspicious occasion for all South Asians. We gather to reaffirm our Charter commitment to promote regional cooperation in a spirit of equality and partnership. Our fundamental goal remains in our resolve to visibly improve the living standards of our people.

As we welcome new faces and greet old friends, we are conscious that this 13th Summit has a special significance. It is a milestone twentieth anniversary of SAARC's creation.

Special tribute is due to Pakistan for hosting the Twelfth SAARC Summit and for the bold steps initiated by it. As chairman, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has suggested further initiatives to promote the SAARC process.

On this special occasion, we acknowledge the aspirations of millions of our fellow South Asians who have been the greatest source of SAARC's strength. I pay tribute to the leaders, past and present, who contributed to the deepening of the SAARC process. I pay special homage to Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman for his vision in launching the SAARC.

The 13th SAARC Summit is a window of opportunity for us. This is a summit to consolidate our gains in regional cooperation during the last two decades. This is a summit that enables us to look to the future and forge a blueprint for the next phase of SAARC activities. This is also our opportunity to turn commitments into action.

We are fortified by the fact that today, in our region, there is a growing sense of confidence, of identity and belief in our own self-reliance and common destiny. South Asia- our common home – accounts for one fifth of the world's population.

It is huge market, backed by 400 million midle-class consumers. It has a combined GDP of over six hundred billion US dollars. It enjoys macro-economic stability, moderately high growth and a demonstrable progress in human development.

Indeed, South Asia is an emerging economic giant with unlimited potential. Realising South Asia 's true potential is the challenge facing us today.

Formidable obstacles, however, still confront us. Widespread incidence of poverty continues to be a major concern for us. Intra-regional trade in South Asia is still about 4 percent of our region's combined trade with the rest of the world. Foreign direct investment in South Asia accounts for a mere one percent of the global total.

South Asia is also not immune from continuing risk, such as currency realignments, creeping protectionism and the emergence of regional trading blocs that can exclude us. A particular responsibility for all of us is to promote regional cooperation to address our common challenges.

We also need to close ranks in order to face thr challenges posed by the end of the MFA regime. We have to enhance our ability to compete and to coordinate and strengthen our bargaining position in global trade negotiations.

All our nations must also be mindful of urgent actions and initiatives needed to maintain a sound ecological balance in South Asia . We must also develop our abundant human resources and integrate our countries fully with the global technological revolution. This we are expected to do without ignoring the social dimension of our common challenges.

It is in the backdrop of these realities that we must chart the directions for the future. I propose to look at some key ideas that have emerged from think-tanks, civil society forums and close interaction among government, business, academia and media over the past two years.

In our last Summit , we recognized alleviation of poverty as the overarching goal of all SAARC activities. We have three instruments at hand to address poverty on a regional scale. First, the Plan of Action on Poverty Alleviation adopted by the Finance and Planning Ministers at Islamabad in 2002. Second, the SAARC Development Goals, which I hope will receive our unanimous endorsement.

In order to implement these instruments we must mobilize all necessary human and material resources. we need to relate our national programmes with a major regional campaign for poverty alleviation.

To that end, I propose that the Summit proclaim yhe coming 2006-2015 as the SAARC Decade for Poverty Alleviation. There is a proposal to establish a SAARC Povrty Alleviation Fund. I suggest that SAARC Finance and Planning Ministers meet within the first quarter of 2006 in order to formulate recommendation on setting up the Fund and its operational modalities.

The ISACPA has done a commendable job. I believe the Independent Commission should continue to play its advocacy role. In addition, it may be mandated to play an advisory role to help the SAARC Secretariat in the follow-up and implementation of poverty alleviation programmes.

Economic development in South Asia must be accompanied by concomitant progress in the social sector, We must make concerted efforts in achieving the objectives outlined in the Social Charter adopted by us during our last summit. I would suggest a few concrete steps.

First, we should set up a regional mechanism for follow-up and implementation of the SAARC Social Charter. Such a forum could consist of the heads of national focal points.

Second, we should elaborate on and implement regional programmes and projects in areas requiring collective regional response or initiative in accordance with the Social Charter.

Third, we should encourage all stakeholders including the private sector, the media and the civil society organisations to contribute to the objectives of the SAARC social charter.

Fourth, I suggest that we undertake a mid-term review of the progress in realising the objectives of the SAARC decade on the rights of the child (2001-2010).

Finally, I call for ratification by December 2005 of the SAARC convention on preventing and combating trafficking in women and children and of the SAARC convention on child welfare.

Accelerating economic growth is a major SAARC objective. To realise this objective, an immediate task will be to achieve substantial increase in intra-regional trade and investment.

In this context, we must ensure that the SAFTA agreement enters into force as agreed upon with effect from first of January 2006. I am happy that four trade and investment facilitation agreements relating to customs, taxation, investment and arbitration have been finalised and will be signed tomorrow.

We need to take further measures including harmonisation of standards, measurements and quality control. A regional agreement on these issues should be concluded as soon as possible to facilitate realisation of the objective of free trade area.

The SAFTA agreement does not include trade in services. This is rapidly expanding at the informal level. An immediate necessity is a study assessing the nature and extent of the market and its underlying dynamics. Dimension of this sector are apparent.

A considerable number of people are already crisis-crossing borders as tourists, pilgrims, students, health-care seekers, professionals etc.

Each country has its own comparative advantage. Investment in education, medical services and overall improvement in the quality of services can lead to a huge growth in this sector.

An emerging area is information technology where out-sourcing brings business and creates employment.

South Asia 's tourism potential remains largely unexploited. We could adopt a strategy to promote South Asia as a single tourist destination.

In this regard, I call upon the heads of state and government to extend SAARC tourism year to 2006. We should also plan boldly for expansion of air services among our countries, development of professional marketing and simplification of visa procedures.

The twelfth summit called for a study on regional cooperation in the energy sector. I am happy that the first meeting of the SAARC energy ministers has concluded with important recommendations.

Initiatives would now have to be taken for exploitation of region's energy resources, setting up of energy grids and promoting energy trade.

In order to advance economic cooperation in all these areas, there should be greater collaboration among public and private sectors.

There could be an annual business summit preceding each SAARC summit. Such a forum could bring together finance and trade ministers, governors of central banks, investment boards business leaders, economic policy institutes and the media.

The SAARC chamber could take a lead role in organising such a forum to promote intra-regional trade and investment.

The tsunami of last December presented a new challenge to our region. Similarly, the huge earthquake tragedy in Pakistan and India is of great concern to us.

The loss of human life and damages to property have been colossal. The disaster exposed our vulnerability. Yet it also demonstrated our quickly within our limited capacity and means.

In this regard, we deeply appreciate the initiative of the president of Maldives to convene a special meeting of the SAARC environment ministers.

Following the devastating floods last year, I had convened a broad-based national seminar in Bangladesh on flood management that addressed all issues comprehensively.

It came out with an extensive set of recommendations on all relevant aspects and areas. We should be happy to share the outcome with all member-states. My government strongly believes that a regional response should be developed to face tsunami, floods earthquakes, cyclones and other natural disasters in the region.

The capacity of the SAARC Meteorological Research Centre in Dhaka should be enhanced through networking with other relevant centres to serve as the regional institution for early warning.

Looking at the long-term perspective, I must say that the threat to ecological balance in South Asia is a real one arising out of years of neglect and pressures on our natural resources.

There must be conscious and serious efforts to reinforce regional cooperation for the management and conservation of water resources and environment, pollution prevention and preparedness to deal with natural calamities.

The lessons of the last 20 years lead us to one conclusion. Factors constraining effective regional cooperation are mindsets and perceptions emanating from the past. Can SAARC construct an economic partnership without first resolving the problems in which some of our countries are locked in today? I believe that we should not opt for an 'either or' approach in this regard.

The twelfth summit singled some moves towards discussion of problematic issues. It was recognised that for realisation of a South Asian economic union, there was a need to create an enabling political and economic environment.

Lessons from other regional organisation show that simultaneous movement was required on all fronts, both political and economic, in ways acceptable to all concerned.

Our future initiatives to create a more dynamic and prosperous South Asia should benefit from these lessons.

We are happy that in South Asia we are all united on combating terrorism. The twelfth summit adopted an additional protocol to the SAARC regional convention, so as to deal effectively with the financing of terrorism. Four countries including Bangladesh have ratified the protocol. I urge the remaining members to expedite their ratification so that the protocol can enter into force at an early date, if possible by the end of the year.

SAARC's agenda has evolved over the years. Today it encompasses all areas of cooperation ranging from trade to social development. As directed by the twelfth summit, an inter-governmental committee has considered the strengthening of the SAARC secretariat.

As SAARC completes 20 years of its existence, it is time that there should be a review and reform of the institutions and mechanisms. In this regard, I would suggest that the standing committee should hold a special session to undertake a through and comprehensive review of all SAARC institutions and mechanism, including the secretariat.

The summit may authorise the council of ministers to finalise recommendations of the standing committee on the subject at its next meeting.

The 21st century undoubtedly belongs to South Asia . Despite our high potential we have remained on the peripheries of the global society for far too long.

The group of eminent persons in their report "SAARC vision beyond the year 2000" envisaged a time-table of achieving SAFTA by 2010: a South Asian customs union by 2015 and a South Asian Economic Union by 2020.

Our summit in Kathmandu agreed to a phased realisation of this vision. We reiterated this commitment in Islamabad . A major step forward would be marked by the entry into force of the SAFTA agreement.

We must take further concrete steps to make the vision a reality. I am convinced that given the will to act, we can fulfil our objectives.

I would like to stress that the focus of all efforts is to improve the condition and quality of life of our peoples.

Let us make a fresh commitment during our present summit to unite our efforts to address the common challenges facing our nations, and to realise the aspirations of our peoples for a peaceful, progressive and prosperous South Asia .

I thank you all.