As part of introductory visits to Member States, H. E. Uz. Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed, Secretary-General of SAARC, visited Sri Lanka from 20 to 22 June 2011.

While in Colombo, H. E. Uz. Dhiyana Saeed called on H. E. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka. During the meeting, the President conveyed his Government’s firm commitment to making SAARC a vibrant organization for the common good of the peoples of South Asia.

During the visit, the Secretary-General also called on H. E. Prof. G. L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs of Sri Lanka. At the meeting, the Minister and the Secretary-General exchanged views on a wide range of issues pertaining to regional cooperation under the auspices of SAARC.

H. E. Uz. Dhiyana Saeed also met H. E. Mr. K. Amunugama, Secretary/External Affairs of Sri Lanka. At the meeting, the Secretary-General expressed her gratitude to the Government of Sri Lanka for endorsing her appointment as the tenth Secretary-General of SAARC. The Foreign Secretary and the Secretary-General also exchanged views on SAARC matters, particularly those relating to intra-regional trade and intra-regional connectivity.

While in Sri Lanka, the Secretary-General also visited the SAARC Cultural Centre and held discussions with its Director and staff.

Since assuming office in March this year, Secretary-General Dhiyana Saeed has paid introductory visits to the Maldives, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, and is expected to pay a visit to Afghanistan in the first week of July. She has also paid introductory calls on the high dignitaries in Nepal.

On an official visit to Maldives, the SAARC Secretary General H.E. Uz. Fathimath Dhiyana Saaed visited SAARC Coastal Zone Management Centre on 14th June 2011. During her visit she met the Director and the staff of the Centre. Mr. Hassan Shifaau, Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives and Mr. Ibrahim Zuhuree, Director SAARC attended the meeting. Director of the Centre, Dr. Shiham thanked the Secretary General for visiting the Centre and expressed appreciation for the opportunity to discuss the issues to the Centre with Secretary General.

During the meeting she interacted with the officials of the Centre and assessed the Centre’s working and performance. She highlighted that being a Centre of excellence its expected that the Centre should develop and implement programme and make significant contribution to meet the emerging environmental challenges and concerns in the region particularly in relation to coastal zones. The Director of the Centre, Dr. M. Shiham Adam briefly appraised the Secretary General on the ongoing programme activities of the Centre including the programme implementation and achievements during the current year. He also highlighted and pressed upon the problems faced by the Centre in programme implementation and recruitment of suitable staff. Madame Secretary General highlighted the need and relevance for developing partnership with local government and civil society organizations in programme implementation of the Centre.

At the end of meeting, the Secretary General suggested to the Director to come up with plan of action to enhance the capacity of the centre to make meaningful contribution in area of coastal zone management in the region.

The Fifth Meeting of the SAFTA Ministerial Council was hosted by Maldives in Male on 13th June 2011. All SAARC Member States participated in the meeting. While Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka were represented by their concerned ministers; Nepal and Pakistan were represented by the concerned Secretaries of their respective Ministries.

The Ministerial Meeting was preceded by the Sixth Meeting of the SAFTA Committee of Experts and the Sixth Meeting of the SAFTA Sub-group on Non-tariff Measures which were held on 11th and 12th June, 2011.  The Secretary General of SAARC inaugurated the meetings of SAFTA Ministerial Council and the SAFTA Committee of Experts. Maldives as the host chaired all the meetings.

The SAFTA Ministerial Council adopted the reports of the Sixth Meeting of the SAFTA Committee of Experts and the Sixth Meeting of the SAFTA Sub-group on Non-tariff Measures.
 

Some of the important decisions and understandings arrived at the meetings are as follows:

1. The sensitive lists are to be pruned down as much as possible. Before the next SAARC Summit, at least 20 percent reduction in the current list is to be done. Based on request from other countries, attempts toward further reduction in the sensitive list will be made by each member country.
2. Bangladesh will finalise terms of reference for a study on how to increase exports of items from Least Developing Countries to the non-Least Developing Countries after it receives inputs from other Least Developing Countries.Afghanistan has formally been inducted into the SAFTA Trade Libralisation Programme (TLP). The provisions of the TLP will be applicable to Afghanistan with effect from 7th August 2011 as per the notification issued by the SAARC Secretariat. Afghanistan will be presenting a linear tariff reduction schedule for consideration of member states in this regard.
3. It was observed that the TLP plan is progressing as provided for in the SAFTA.
4. For better trade prospects in the region, the Member States should make their offers on the principle of GATS plus while conducting negotiations under SAARC agreement on trade in services.
5. With regard to sub-group on non-tariff measures, it was noted that the major work of submitting notifications on NTMs/PTMs, responses and counter-responses has been completed. Therefore the remaining work of the group will be taken over by the SAFTA committee of experts.
6. The next meeting of the SAFTA Ministerial Council will be held in Islamabad, Pakistan

SAARC information Centre, Kathmandu, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, organized a ‘Media Workshop on SAARC’ in New Delhi on 6-7 June 2011. 

1.    The workshop took note of various initiatives taken by the SAARC for the last 25 years particularly SAARC Social Charter, Charter of Democracy, SAFTA, Food Bank, South Asian University, SAARC Development Fund. These initiatives are significant for socio-economic development of the region.

2.    The workshop noted that the SAARC Secretariat through the SAARC Information Centre (SIC) is making concerted efforts to take the activities and achievements of SAARC to the wider audience within and outside region. For this the SIC is working towards creating a strong network of communication both inside the SAARC region and beyond.

3.    The two - day workshop held at Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi (06-07 June 2011) was attended by delegates from Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Director (IPA), SAARC Secretariat also attended.

4.    After extensive deliberations on the SAARC Plan of Action on Information and Media (1998), the workshop made the following unanimous recommendations:

i)SIC should function as Regional Media hub for the dissemination of information about SAARC initiatives, programmes and activities.

ii)    SIC should develop linkages with existing government information systems in the member countries like Press Information Bureau (PIB), Press Information Department (PID).

iii)    SIC should hold a meeting of Heads of leading News Agencies of member countries to forge closer cooperation for better flow of information regarding SAARC activities.

iv)    SIC should organize a meeting of Media Heads and Editors of the region before every SAARC Summit.

v)    Revive and enlarge SAARC Audio Visual Exchange (SAVE).

vi)    SIC should encourage joint production of documentaries on common issues of the region.

vii)    SIC should organize every year a SAARC Film Festival on a rotation basis in member countries in coordination with their respective film festival authorities.

viii)    SIC should organize orientation workshops for media persons on regular basis in cooperation with training institutes of the member countries.

ix)    SIC should organize a workshop of representatives of various media training institutions of the region to develop a SAARC orientation module to be included in the syllabi of media training institutes in the member countries.

x)    SIC should organize a meeting of experts from the region to evolve SAARC guidelines on transnational satellite broadcasting.

xi)    The increasing role of SIC in taking SAARC to masses requires more resources from the member states.