SAARC's work is not yet over, says PM Sheikh Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that the need for South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is ‘not yet over’.

"The SAARC is still needed. The eight-nation regional body is very much alive and I think it can work for changing the lot of the people of South Asian region," she said.

The prime minister was speaking during an interactive session on “Harnessing Regional Cooperation in South Asia’ at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.

Representatives and civil society members from several countries, including Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe, and Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman, were present at the session.

The South Asian organisation was formed in 1985 to encourage cooperation between the region’s countries, but has repeatedly failed to meet its desired goals.

The 19th SAARC summit in Islamabad, Pakistan last year was cancelled after four countries boycotted it.

India started the boycott over an attack on Indian armed forces in the border region of Jammu-Kashmir, and was later joined by Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The cancellation reignited talk of SAARC’s inadequacies.

During an interview to India’s Hindu newspaper, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh’s reasons for the boycott were different than India’s.

Bangladesh had boycotted the summit because Pakistan’s response to the trials of Islamist leaders convicted of 1971 war crimes trials were unacceptable, she had said.

At the interactive session the prime minister emphasised poverty as the South Asia region’s greatest foe.

“Our main emphasis should be on eradicating poverty,” she said.

SAARC countries will have to boost trade, commerce, connectivity and communication in order to fight poverty, she said.

 

The prime minister also called on leaders to strengthen initiatives in the same way as BBIN, BCIM-EC and BIMSTEC.

Hasina also pointed out how the BCIM-EC forum would integrate China further into the South Asia region and that SAFTA would serve to boost trade and commerce.

Asked about the issue of climate change, the prime minister called for an action plan, its implementation and other government initiatives, including the formation of a Climate Resilience Trust Fund.

“We are not waiting for anyone, but are taking the initiative ourselves.”

Responding to a question on the impact of coal-based power plants in Bangladesh, the prime minister said that coal was required for the 24,000 MW of power needed for Bangladesh to become a middle-income country by 2021.   

“The government has also taken initiatives to generate electricity through renewable energy sources and nuclear power,” she said. “We are focusing on the use of advanced technology to keep pollution from coal-based power plants to a minimum.”

Asked by a Pakistani civil society member why ‘elderly people’ were being hanged in the name of war crimes, Sheikh Hasina said: “The people you have described as elderly were young in 1971...They were involved in heinous crimes like killing, rape and burning and looting houses and the criminals are being tried and receiving punishment according to the law.”