By IANS
Dhaka : All eight members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) are participating in the group’s first youth camp being held in Bangladesh.
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed inaugurated the four-day camp Monday exhorting the participants to exchange ideas and experiences that would help push the region towards greater and faster progress.
He reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to “building partnerships in activities relevant for our (Saarc countries’) progress”.
Dhaka is holding the first regional youth fest, with the theme ‘Connecting South Asian Youths’, in keeping with its promise made at the 14th Saarc Summit in April this year in New Delhi, The Daily Star reported Tuesday.
Ahmed was quoted as saying the Saarc Youth Camp would bring “young minds from Mazar-e-Sharif to Male, Quetta to Kathmandu, Colombo to Kolkata, and Thimphu to Dhaka for meeting annually in institutionalised but informal settings”.
Ahmed said the youth camp was an indication of Saarc’s “determination to connect the minds and hearts of the people of the member countries, generate greater cohesion and understanding, and bridge the gap, if any, in the mindsets of regional countries”.