The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

The stage is now set to hold the two-day eight nations 15th South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit on August 2-3 in Sri Lankan capital Colombo, official sources said here yesterday.

Eight head of states or governments will participate in the Summit, the theme of which is "SAARC for Partnership for our People."

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed will lead the Bangladesh delegation to the Summit.

Besides, the member countries seven observer states- Japan, USA, EU, China, South Korea, Iran and Mauritius will also attend the regional moot.

The Summit will be preceded by a two-day Council of Ministers meeting from July 31, the sources said. The meeting of the Council of Ministers will review the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the 14th SAARC Summit in India in 2007.

The Ministers meeting will also consider request for observer status of the regional grouping of Australia and Mnyanmar, the sources said. Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury will represent Bangladesh at the Council of Ministers meeting.

During the two-day meeting, the sources said, the council of ministers are expected to deliberate extensively issues of urgent regional concern specially food security, energy cooperation and climate change.

The meeting of the Council of Ministers will review the progress made so far as regards the implementation of SAFTA, particularly further liberalisation of trade, tariff concessions, reduction of sensitive list and harmonization of customs rules and procedures to increase trade among the member countries of the forum.

The ministers are expected to sign the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) Charter and the agreement regarding the establishment of South Asian Regional Standards Organisation (SARSO) with headquarters in Bangladesh. They are also expected to initial a protocol extending the benefit from revenue compensation mechanism to Afghanistan.

The meeting is expected to follow up regional initiatives on increased connectivity and security matters.

The summit leaders will witness the signing of the agreements.

The two-day foreign Secretary level SAARC Standing Committee meeting will begin in Colombo on July 29, which will review recommendations and decisions of different mechanisms of the regional grouping (Technical Committee, Working Group and programming Committee) relating to different areas of regional cooperation in the field of trade, agriculture, health and disaster preparedness.

The Standing Committee is also expected to finalize SAARC Convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters. A legal expert group of member countries is negotiating to finalise the draft for the standing committee so that it can place it before the Council of ministers for necessary approval, sources said.

Besides, the meeting will review the performance of 10 SAARC regional centers.

The SAARC Standing Committee meeting will be preceded by a two-day Programming Committee meeting beginning from July 27.

Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Director General of SAARC will leave here for Colombo on July 25 to participate in the Programming Committee meeting.