By IRNA
New Delhi : The 29th session of the council of Ministers of SAARC countries decided “the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) is to be operationalized immediately.”
This was decided at the meeting of the eighth nations South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Council of ministers which began in New Delhi Friday.
It was also decided to endorse a proposal for setting up security network within the region.
Briefing media about the meeting, the External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee said a temporary cell is being established in the Secretariat of the regional body for operationalization of the Fund and implementation of identified projects from the available fund.
The fund will be of 300 million US dollars.
He said that India even before conceptualization of the fund had offered 100 million dollars to be used for social projects in the region.
With regard to the security network, it was agreed that a draft agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters will be finalised as soon as possible. The legal advisors of the region will be meeting in Sri Lanka in April next year to finalise the text of the agreement.
The Social projects cleared for implementation include maternal, child health and immunization, empowerment of women and other disadvantaged sections of the society and capacity building aimed at enhancing the quality of education and teachers training for the purpose.
The meeting identified eight transport projects for intra region connectivity and one on the procurement of customs related equipment for faster clearance of cargo.
These include air connectivity between Male and New Delhi and Islamabad and New Delhi, rail corridor between Colombo and Chennai and ferry service between Colombo – Cochin and Colombo – Tuticorin.
A project on tele medicine is also being put into implementation mode.
Mukherjee said that another important initiative is with regard to climate change.
The concern over its impact on the people and the need for a global response has been expressed in the declaration of the foreign ministers.
Sri Lanka will host the SAARC summit next year instead of Maldives which was originally decided.
Maldives will be hosting the summit in 2009.
The name of Dr. Sheel Kant Sharma from India was approved for appointment of new SAARC Secretary General.