ISLAMABAD: South Asia can move ahead with complementarities that attract initiatives for cooperation, said Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Executive Director Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri while speaking at the concluding ceremony of the 10th edition of South Asia Economic Summit (SAES) held at Kathmandu.
National Planning Commission Vice Chairman Swarnim Wagle on the occasion opined that the stalling of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has doubly highlighted the importance of Track II initiatives like the South Asia Economic Summit. He also called on the initiative to think about setting up a permanent secretariat to institutionalise the region-wide deliberations on regional issues.
During one of the plenary sessions, Centre for Policy Dialogue Bangladesh Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan said the move away from SAARC was not an altogether new phenomenon, and at such times, civil society needs to be particularly proactive to keep the idea of South Asia alive.
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Social Development Division Director Dr Nagesh Kumar said that sibling rivalries were a fact of life among neighbours that hold back cooperation. But, he said, there will also be sudden upsurges in complementarities to push cooperation forward.
Institute of Policy Dialogue of Sri Lanka Executive Director Dr Dushni Weerakoon said that each country in the region was undergoing its own travails at the moment stalling the regional development for the time being.
Published in Daily Times, November 19th 2017.
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