Message from the Secretary General of SAARC

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Message from His Excellency Dr. Sheel Kant Sharma, Secretary
General of SAARC on the SAARC Charter Day, g December 2010
I am pleased to extend, on behalf of the Secretariat, my colleagues and
on my own, warm greetings and felicitations to the peoples and the
Governments of the Member States of South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on the auspicious occasion of the Twenfyfifth
Anniversary of the founding of the Association.
With an ardent desire to promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia
and improve their quality of life through regional cooperation in
economic, social, cultural and technical fields, the South Asian leaders
signed the Charter of SAARC on 8 December 1985. Since then,
SAARC has gradually emerged to be the beacon of hope and
expectation of millions of people in the region. The SAARC Summits
have consistently upheld poverty alleviation as an overarching goal.
Through its diverse activities over decades, SAARC has sought to
engender a distinct South Asian identity and a culture of peace,
cooperation and partnership for the collective benefit of our peoples,
brought up potential of regional cooperation, embarked into a free trade
area, and enhanced sharing of experiences at the level of
professionals, intellectuals, artists, litterateurs and business
communities. It has pursued common position on the issues of mutual
concerns at the international forums. Moreover, SAARC's policy
making and norm-setting corpus also comprises a number of agreements
and conventions related to trade as well as concerning mutual legal
assistance and combating terrorism and trafficking in women and
children.
The Sixteenth Summit held in Thimphu in April this year was yer
another significant milestone in progress of the SAARC process for the
overall growth of the region through partnership with peoples. In this
Silver Jubilee Year of SAARC, it is a matter of satisfaction that
SAARC has crossed a number of important milestones. Participation
of observers such as Australia, the union of Myanmar) pebple's
Republic of china, Islamic Republic of lran, Japan, Republic of
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Korea, Mauritius, the United States of America and the European
Union at the Sixteenth Summit in Thimphu has demonstrated the
importance of South Asia and its official forum for regional
cooperation. The Leaders of SAARC Member States have also
expressed deep concern about the adverse effects of climate change
and its impact on the lives and livelihoods of the 1.6 billion people of
South Asia, the Sixteenth Summit adopted 'Climate change' as the
theme and reaffirmed their commitment to address this challenge.
Member-States are engaged in collaborative efforts to achieve greater
intra-regional connectivity, enhance regional cooperation in
agriculture to increase overall agricultural productivity, promoting of
tourism to enhance people-to-people contacts and enhancing
cooperation in the diverse aspects of energy sector such as energy
trade, energy efficiency, conventional and renewable energy and so
on. South Asian Free Trade Agreement has been operational for five
years now. To accelerate economic growth among Member States, the
Charter of SAARC Development Fund has also been ratified and its
permanent Secretariat in Thimphu is functioning with focus on
financing and implementation of regional and sub-regional projects.
SAARC Food Bank has also been established to address food
contingency in the region. Another milestone achieved by the
SAARC is the establishment of the South Asian University which has
commenced its first academic session in New Delhi.
In this Silver Jubilee Year of SAARC, we would like to reaffirm our
firm commitments along with the Member States to continue to strive
to take forward the SAARC process and reahze the goals articulated in
the SAARC Charter.
;Lih,"-l!t"r*.
(Dr*Sheel{frit Sh arma)
Secretary General of SAARC
8'h December 2010