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In order to launch and discuss the SADCR 2004, RIS organized a Seminar on South Asia Development Cooperation Report 2004 in New Delhi on January 27, 2004. Shri K.C. Pant, Hon’ble Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission and Chairman, RIS chaired the event and released the Report. In his inaugural address Shri K C Pant underlined that with the signing of the SAFTA Agreement at the recent SAARC Summit, a much needed impetus has been imparted to the process of economic integration in South Asian region. Shri Pant emphasized that the regional economic integration, by expanding economic opportunities, and exploiting the synergies of the countries in the region for mutual benefit, could serve as a new engine of growth. SAARC as a regional economic grouping has a rich potential for bringing about rapid economic development and enhanced competitiveness by facilitating industrial restructuring on a most efficient basis. Shri Shashank, Foreign Secretary also addressed the seminar and said that Report contained several useful ideas that need to be considered by the SAARC policy makers. Dr Nagesh Kumar, Director-General, RIS presented the highlights of the Report. This was followed by a Panel Discussion by eminent experts on South Asia economic integration, viz. Prof Muchkund Dubey, President, CSD, New Delhi; Prof Rehman Sobhan, Executive Director, SACEPS, Dhaka; Dr A R Kemal, Director, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Pakistan; and Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute for Policy Studies, Colombo. The panelists paid rich tributes to the Report for providing an up-to-date analysis of challenges for the economic development in the region and a road-map for the regional economic cooperation. The Report is third in the series of Reports launched by RIS in 1999. A
large number of participants from diplomatic missions, government
departments, business and industry circles, research institutions, and
media attended the programme.
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per the recommendations of the Sixth Meeting of the SAARC Network of
Researchers on Global Financial and Economic Issues, held in Islamabad
on December 8, 2004 (RIS Diary, January 2004), RIS prepared the
South Asia Development and Cooperation Report 2004 on the eve of the
Twelfth SAARC Summit. Advance copies of the SADCR 2004 were made
available for the Twelfth SAARC Summit.