ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) should be made more active to ensure progress and prosperity in the region for the benefit of one fifth of world population.
Speaking at the launching ceremony of Pakistan Action Plan to implement Saarc Social Charter here at prime minister secretariat, Shaukat Aziz, who is also chairman of Saarc, said Pakistan would present new proposals and initiatives in the forthcoming Saarc summit being held in Bangladesh in November this year to make the organization more effective and vibrant.
The prime minister said Pakistan is committed to extend full cooperation and assistance to the members of the Saarc for achieving the goals of development.
Mr Aziz said the people living in Saarc region had the potential but there is need to utilize it in a better and organized way.
He said the Saarc Secretariat should also be made pro-active so that it could play important role in promoting harmony, cooperation and assistance among the member states.
He said the Saarc Secretariat needs more manpower to carry forward the Saarc programmes in an effective manner.
Mr Aziz said nations in South Asia share cultural, social and historical traditions and its only natural for them to join hands to address more effectively the economic and social needs of their peoples through the interaction of ideas, values, cultures and philosophies.
He said the Pakistan Action Plan to implement Saarc Social Charter was a significant milestone in the short history of the association.
The prime minister said the Charter would accelerate economic growth, social progress, and cultural development besides reducing poverty in the region as well as promoting welfare of the people through improvement in quality of life.
Mr Aziz said Pakistan’s commitment and devotion to implement the Saarc Social Charter is in right direction and expressed the hope that it would provide strength to others in the region.
Appreciating the goals set in the Charter, the prime minister said, Pakistan would make all out efforts to meet and exceed these goals with a view to improve the living standard of the people in the country.
He said with the measures taken by the government in recent years in Pakistan, social indicators had been improved and the enrolment of school going children had increased from 42 to 52 per cent, literacy rate gone up to 57 per cent from 45 per cent and the immunization had increased to 77 per cent from 53 per cent.
The prime minister said these improvements had been acknowledged by the UN in its report.
Referring to the Social Charter, he said it ensured that member countries had to maintain a social policy and strategy to ensure comprehensive and balanced social development of their people, taking into account the broader national development goals.
He said Pakistan had formulated the Plan through a broad-based consultative process.
MrAziz said the poverty is still pervasive in most developing countries and remains a major concern in South Asia, which continues to have the highest number of absolute poor, malnutritioned, unemployed and non-literate people.
He said the Plan of Action articulates response to the Saarc Social Charter and it would focus on developing and maintaining social infrastructure, environment, drug de-addiction, population stabilization, women, youth, children, housing, micro-credit, water supply and sanitation.
Mr Aziz said the poverty alleviation can be achieved only through a broad-based growth, structural reforms, and consistent policies.—APP
