 ADDRESS BY H E MR SHAUKAT AZIZ
PRIME MINISTER OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN
Your Excellency Begum Khaleda Zia,
Chairperson SAARC
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Assalam-o-Alaikum
It is indeed a privilege to participate in the Thirteenth SAARC Summit in the historic city of Dhaka . I wish to thank the Government and people of Bangladesh for their warm welcome and their gracious hospitality. The impressive arrangements made by the Government of Bangladesh augur well for the success of the Summit .
Allow me to offer to you, Madam Prime Minister, our heartiest felicitations on your assumption of the office of the Chairperson of SAARC. I am confident that under your able leadership, SAARC will move rapidly towards realisation of its cherished goals. I assure you of Pakistan 's full support to your endeavours in this direction.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
I compliment our former Secretary General, Mr QAMA Rahim and his team for their excellent work in steering the SAARC organisation during his tenure. I also warmly welcome His Excellency Lyonpo Chenkyab Dorji, our new Secretary General, who, I am sure, will provide dynamic stewardship to the Organisation. We assure him of our full cooperation.
I am told that this will be the last appearance by Her Excellency President Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka at a SAARC Summit as she will be relinquishing her august post after completion of eleven years in the office of the Presidency. Our organisation has greatly benefited from her wisdom and sagacity over the years. We shall miss her wise counsel and inspiring leadership. We wish her every success in her future endeavours in the service of her country and the SAARC.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
I take this opportunity to express our deep gratitude to the world community and especially to our SAARC community for the generous assistance given to Pakistan in our hour of need as we were hit by the catastrophic earthquake of 8 October. In the face of this colossal tragedy, our people have responded with courage and determination.
The tsunami of last December and the equally devastating earthquake clearly highlight the need to establish an early warning and disaster response system in the region. The SAARC Environment Ministers Conference in the Male this June had called for strengthening regional cooperation for better preparedness and effective management of natural disasters. This recommendation deserves special attention at the national level.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
We are happy to see that as SAARC celebrates its twentieth anniversary, the organisation has returned to the city of its birth for rejuvenation. The spirit of Dhaka will lend our enterprise greater vigour and dynamism. We pay tribute to the inspiring vision of Late President Ziaur Rahman who initiated the SAARC idea and emphasised that regional cooperation was essential for peace and progress of South Asia. We must transform this vision into a reality.
This Dhaka Summit will also be remembered as a landmark event for we would welcome the brotherly country of Afghanistan to the SAARC family. Inclusion of Afghanistan will undoubtedly enrich our organisation and add to its strength. We also welcome the interest of our friend and neighbour China to be associated with our organisation as an observer or dialogue partner.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
We live in a transformed world where regional cooperation has become a powerful vehicle of peace, development and progress. South Asia is yet to enter the mainstream of this worldwide phenomenon. We remain mired in poverty and preoccupied with our differences and conflicts. We have not been able to leverage the full potential of SAARC.
As we look at the twenty years of SAARC, we cannot escape the conclusion that South Asia lags behind its larger Asian neighbourhood, in terms of economic and social advancement.
In my view there are two key impediments to SAARC's success. Firstly, the political disputes and tensions in the region. We have remained embroiled with conflict management. We need to move towards conflict resolution.
Secondly, while other Asian countries, especially those of the ASEAN, forged closer and robust cooperation for development and positioned themselves to benefit from globalisation, SAARC has remained inward looking and shy of reaching out to other regional organisations and the world. We must adopt an inclusive approach and open to interaction especially with our larger Asian neighbourhood. We need to create linkages and interdependencies ensuring a win-win for all.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
Dhaka Summit is taking place under propitious circumstances as we are witnessing a new hope across our ancient sub-continent. Since the Islamabad Summit, I am happy to state that the political atmosphere between Pakistan and India has improved, and both countries are engaged in a peace process to resolve all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir . Success of the process augurs well for the region and SAARC.
I am also happy to say that regional cooperation and SAARC's profile were enhanced during the past two years. The Twelfth Summit took landmark decisions that have helped energize SAARC. We were able to set new markers for regional cooperation in South Asia , including SAFTA, the Social Charter, Poverty Alleviation, Energy Cooperation and the signing of the Additional Protocol to the SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism. SAARC has also received Observer Status at the United Nations. We are grateful for the cooperation and support we received during Pakistan 's Chairmanship from all the Member States.
We must now demonstrate the political will to sustain the momentum generated at Islamabad . We should build on areas of convergence, minimise divergences and most of all seek to augment complementarities for the greater good of the peoples of this region. We must learn from each other's best practices. We need to help each other to help ourselves.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
Pakistan has submitted to this Summit a blue print to make SAARC goal-oriented, practical and pragmatic. The focus should be on implementation of decisions and translating into tangible terms the worth and value of our regional enterprise. SAARC activities should be prioritised, quantified an evaluated constantly. We must enable SAARC to deliver on the promise of its Charter.
In this perspective, I would suggest that SAARC set itself the following broad priorities:
• Expansion and intensification of economic and commercial cooperation.
• Promoting cooperation in the field of energy.
• Cooperation for environmental protection and sustainable development with particular focus on conservation and management of water and natural resources.
• Cooperation for joint projects to alleviate poverty and promote health, education and agriculture. In this context our proposal of a SAARC Poverty Alleviation Fund of US$300 million has been welcomed.
• Improvement of infrastructure, especially region-wide transportation and communication links. I am encouraged to see the establishment of the SAARC Regional Multimodal Workshop which is tasked to study and help develop the transport sector in the region.
• Greater cooperation and coordination in the monetary and fiscal policies of SAARC Member States. Pakistan is ready to host the next meeting of Finance Ministers before the end of the year.
• Strengthening of the SAARC Secretariat. Our proposals in this regard are with the Member States.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
SAFTA has been a landmark agreement and we take pride in the fact that it materialised at the Twelfth Summit in Islamabad . I commend the hard work put in by the Committee of Experts. I hope that negotiations would be completed in time for SAFTA to become operational by January 2006.
Pakistan is a strong advocate of energy cooperation in South Asia , including the concept of an Energy Ring as mandated by the 12 th SAARC Summit. We hosted the 1 st SAARC Energy Ministers meeting in Islamabad , which approved the establishment of a SAARC Regional Centre on Energy in Pakistan . I am confident that the Centre will develop into a regional institution of excellence for the initiation, coordination and facilitation of SAARC programmes in Energy. I may mention that the prospective Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline will be an outstanding example of regional cooperation in the energy sector.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
In the interest of efficiency and effectiveness, it is our view that the SAARC Summit and other meetings should be streamlined to make them business like. Summits, Ministerial and Standing Committee meetings should each have duration of one day. We need to concentrate on substantive matters. The future SAARC Declarations should be well-focussed and brief documents.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
The SAARC Social Charter is a historic document. It provides a clear vision for the socio-cultural development of South Asia . Implementation of its objectives in priority areas including health, education, human development, poverty alleviation, empowerment of women and protection of children would have far reaching impact on the lives of our peoples. The Charter objectives should be correlated to the Millennium Development Goals to facilitate multi-dimensional assistance and cooperation from the UN specialised agencies.
Pakistan took the lead in setting up of a National Coordination Committee to prepare a National Strategy and Action Plan to implement the Charter and launched its National Plan of Action last September. In addition to poverty reduction, our plan focuses on raising and maintaining the social infrastructure, environment, drug de-addiction, women, youth, children, housing, clean drinking water and sanitation. We have aligned the targets of the Plan of Action with our Medium Term Development Framework, which, in turn, is in line with the Millennium Development Goals.
Eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge and remains the biggest impediment to sustainable development particularly in our region. Pakistan has made concerted efforts to arrest poverty through accelerating economic growth, developing human resource, job creation in agriculture and industry, and through micro-finance credit. The preliminary results of Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey suggest a significant reduction of poverty level in Pakistan .
SAARC has placed considerable emphasis on gender equality and empowerment of women. We should redoubled our efforts to bring women into our political and socio-economic mainstream. We commend the Work Plan adopted by the SAARC Advocacy Group of Women at its meeting in Islamabad in July 2004. Pakistan will host the SAARC Ministerial Conference on Women in 2006.
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,
In an interdependent, fast globalising world, no regional grouping can hope to function in isolation. SAARC must open up to other regional groups and the international community. The interaction among SAARC Ambassadors' Groups in major capitals of the world and at the UN to exchange views on important global issues of mutual interest and coordinate our positions has worked successfully. We should establish closer interactions with important extra-regional states and other regional organisations especially the European Union, ASEAN, OECD, ECO, the Gulf Coordination Council and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The rich civilisational and cultural heritage of the peoples of South Asia has a lot to offer to the world. We must give thought to sharing of best practices not only amongst ourselves but also with other regions. Our region's excellence in knowledge, arts, crafts, traditions and culture should be shared with other regional organisations.
There is a need to create synergies and build mutually beneficial economic complementarities for progress in South Asia . I firmly believe that we can transform South Asia into an engine of economic growth for the world while preserving our environment and our civilisational distinction. Pakistan remains committed to promoting regional cooperation under the SAARC auspices for ensuring peace, amity and progress of the peoples of our region.
Thank you.
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