PM urges joint SAARC efforts to tackle natural calamities

POKHARA, March 17: Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has called upon governments of all the South Asian countries to jointly tackle natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods that have caused colossal losses in South Asia. He proposed to work for collective preparedness, responsiveness and collective collaboration.

The prime minister said this while inaugurating the 37th SAARC foreign ministerial meeting in Pokhara on Tuesday.Oli also called upon the governments of the region to jointly fight poverty and backwardness with the political will of highest order to cooperate and to collaborate in a spirit of enduring partnership.

Terming poverty as a common enemy of all the South Asian countries, Oli said poverty has drained the entire region's potentials, ridiculed these countries' collective efforts, and threatened the whole of the region.

"And the enemy is real, pervasive and stubborn. We need to work together to conquer this enemy. We need to intensify our cooperation to wipe out the very traces of this enemy. We need to act collectively to annihilate this common enemy," Oli said in his inaugural address at the meeting of the SAARC council of ministers in Pokhara on Thursday. "At any cost we cannot afford to let this enemy win. We see no reason for South Asia to be at the downside of development landscape. The cooperation is, thus not a luxury."

He said that increased understanding of the South Asian governments and peoples, their flexibility and collaboration would contribute to creating a positive atmosphere for meaningful cooperation, deeper integration, and to bring the structural transformation of South Asia.

He also laid emphasis on connectivity as a key enabler for robust regional cooperation. The prime minister underscored that connectivity of infrastructures , energy, ideas, connectivity in terms of information and telecommunication technology as well as of knowledge, literature and culture, connectivity of markets as well as of minds can indeed unleash the potential of South Asian cooperation. "It can promote meaningful cooperation in trade and investment, in tourism, in finance, and in energy with multiplier effects," he said.

Likewise, he emphasized on vitalizing the engine of economic prosperity. "It is unfortunate to note that we trade little within the region," said the prime minister.

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