South Asia Forum in December

A first- SAARC Govt backed non-state forum

ANIS ALAMGIR
The Independent, Dhaka,10-10-10

SAARC group of countries are all set to launch a new organisation- South Asian Forum- essentially comprising non-state actors in Goa, India in December this year.
The proposed forum will focus on developing a 'vision for the next 25 years' for SAARC.
Recommendations of the Forum would be fed into the SAARC process in the lead to the 17th SAARC Summit in Male in 2011.
The forum will comprise leading industrialists, leaders and intellectuals, NGO’s and other civil society groups who will debate, discuss and exchange ideas on South Asia and its future development.
“Bangladesh is keen on the forum as such a forum could function on public-private partnership lines, and allow for multiple inputs other than Government to flow into a collective vision of the future of SAARC,” said a foreign ministry official.
The idea was mooted at the Sixteenth SAARC Summit held in Thimphu, in april this year.
According to Foreign ministry officials, the forum could work towards the larger objective of a South Asian Community and the idea of a South Asian Economic Union.
It would also focus on inclusive and equitable development and reinforce cooperation in areas like environment, infrastructure, natural resources and human resource development.
Although Track-II meetings involving some SAARC countries have been held in the past, there has been no precedent of a regional forum endorsed by the Heads of State and the Government’s of the SAARC member states.
The Forum could eventually be modeled on existing successful initiatives of a similar nature such as the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Asia Pacific Roundtable (APR).