Next dev programme for MDGs to top agenda
Rezaul Karim | Saturday, 5 April 2014
Next development programme for the MDGs, pinpointing areas of regional and south-south co-operation, will be high on the agenda of the upcoming 2nd meeting of cabinet secretaries of the SAARC countries, officials said.
The high-powered meeting will be held in Dhaka on April 26-27. The top bureaucrats of all the eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states are scheduled to attend it.
In the meeting, the cabinet secretaries will discuss the possibility of increasing cooperation in fighting cyber crime and share ideas in the area. Besides, they will focus on trade and investment as a whole, so that south Asia can emerge as a vibrant region, sources concerned said.
"The second meeting of the SAARC cabinet secretaries will mainly highlight regional collaboration in the areas of regional and south-south co-operation, and next development programme for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," said an official of the Cabinet Division.
They will emphasize the need for strengthening mutual alliance, and exchanging knowledge and information to control cyber crime.
Besides, the cabinet secretaries will try to identify more regional projects for developing the member states and benefiting their citizens, he added.
The SAARC secretariat has sent the discussion agenda to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bangladesh has given preliminary consent on the issues. An inter-ministerial meeting was held in this connection on March 24 at the secretariat, presided over the Cabinet Division secretary.
He also said they are now preparing a position paper for Bangladesh. An eleven-member core committee has been formed to organize and coordinate the meeting.
Cabinet secretaries of the SAARC countries will also meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Earlier, the meeting was scheduled to be held in September 2010. But it was postponed due to inconvenience of some countries.
The 18th SAARC Summit is expected to be held in Kathmandu in November. The SAARC is made up of eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. It is the only organisation is South Asia that is specifically committed to developing regional co-operation.