SAARC : Kathmandu Declaration 2014 (Full text)
Posted by Krisha Music on Monday, December 22, 2014 | 0 comments
“Deeper
Integration for Peace and Prosperity”
The
President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan His Excellency Mohammad Ashraf
Ghani; the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Her
Excellency Sheikh Hasina; the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan His
Excellency Tshering Tobgay; the Prime Minister of the Republic of India His
Excellency Narendra Modi; the President of the Republic of the Maldives His
Excellency Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom; the Prime Minister of Nepal Right
Honourable Sushil Koirala; the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif; and the President of the
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa; Having met
at the Eighteenth Summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) held in Kathmandu,
Nepal on
November 26-27, 2014; Reaffirming
their commitment to the principles and objectives of SAARC for ensuring the
welfare and quality of life of the peoples of South Asia; Recognizing
that after nearly thirty years of its existence, it is time to reinvigorate
SAARC’s regional cooperation and revitalize SAARC as an effective vehicle to
fulfill the developmental aspirations of the peoples of South
Asia; Determined
to deepen regional integration for peace and prosperity by promoting mutual
trust, amity, understanding, cooperation and partnership;
Declared
as follows:
Regional
cooperation
The Heads of
State or Government expressed their strong determination to deepen regional
integration for peace, stability and prosperity in South
Asia by intensifying cooperation, inter alia, in trade,
investment, finance, energy, security, infrastructure, connectivity and
culture; and implementing projects, programmes and activities in a prioritized,
result-oriented and time-bound manner.
South
Asian Economic Union (SAEU)
The Leaders
renewed their commitment to achieve South Asian Economic Union (SAEU) in a
phased and planned manner through a Free Trade Area, a Customs Union, a Common
Market, and a Common Economic and Monetary Union.
The Leaders
acknowledged that SAARC Member States, particularly the Least Developed and
Landlocked Member States, face structural constraints and challenges that
result in their weak productive capacity affecting their competitiveness in
external trade due to, among others, high trade and transit cost. They
committed to enhance support to the Least Developed and Landlocked Member
States in their
development efforts, with a view to ensuring equitable benefits of free trade
arrangements. In this context, they agreed to effectively implement the
existing preferential facilities under SAFTA and SATIS.
SAFTA
and Trade Facilitation
Directed SAFTA
Ministerial Council and SAFTA Committee of Experts to accelerate free trade in
goods and services in the region putting into operation simplified and
transparent rules of origin; implementation of trade facilitation measures;
harmonization of standards relating to Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and
sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures; harmonized, streamlined and simplified
customs procedures; elimination of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers; and
smooth and efficient transit and transport facilities. They also called
for early operationalization of SATIS by finalizing the schedule of
commitments.
They called for
timely and comprehensive reforms of the global economic and financial
architecture to make it inclusive and responsive to the needs of Least
Developed, Land-locked, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
They reaffirmed
that SIDS would require special attention in view of their unique circumstances
and particular vulnerabilities in realization of sustainable development.
SAARC
Development Fund
They agreed to
strengthen the Social Window of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) and
operationalize its Economic Window and Infrastructure Window at the earliest
for effective implementation of regional and sub-regional projects. In that
context, they stressed on expeditious development of projects under SDF
addressing the livelihood issues of the peoples of the region. They agreed to
expand the Governing Board of SDF by including a representative of the National
Focal Point of the Member States.
Connectivity
The Heads of
State or Government welcomed the significant progress towards finalization of
the SAARC Motor Vehicles Agreement and SAARC Regional Railways Agreement and
agreed to hold a Meeting of the Transport Ministers within three months in
order to finalize the Agreements for approval. They renewed their
commitment to substantially enhance regional connectivity in a seamless manner
through building and upgrading roads, railways, waterways infrastructure,
energy grids, communications and air links to ensure smooth cross-border flow
of goods, services, capital, technology and people. The leaders emphasized the
need for linking South Asia with contiguous regions, including Central
Asia, and beyond by all modes of connectivity and directed relevant authorities
to initiate national, regional and sub regional measures and necessary
arrangements.
Energy
The Leaders
directed the relevant SAARC bodies and mechanisms to identify regional and
sub-regional projects in the area of power generation, transmission and power
trade, including hydropower, natural gas, solar, wind and bio-fuel, and
implement them with high priority with a view to meeting the increasing demand
for power in the region. The Leaders welcomed the signing of the SAARC
Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity).
Poverty
Alleviation
The Leaders
reiterated their strong commitment to free South Asia
from poverty and directed the Ministerial and Secretary-level mechanisms on
poverty alleviation to review the progress and revisit the SAARC Plan of Action
and its effective implementation, also taking into account the Post-2015
Development Agenda.
They recognized
the potential of cooperatives in achieving inclusive, broad-based and
sustainable economic growth and development, and called for sharing of
experiences, expertise and best practices in this sector.
Post-2015
Development Goals
The Leaders
recognized that the Post-2015 Development Agenda, following its adoption at the
UN, would present opportunities to compliment national and regional efforts on
sustainable development. They directed to initiate an Inter-Governmental
process to appropriately contextualize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
at the regional level.
Agriculture
and Food Security
The Heads of
State or Government agreed to increase investment, promote research and
development, facilitate technical cooperation and apply innovative, appropriate
and reliable technologies in the agriculture sector for enhancing productivity
to ensure food and nutritional security in the region. They also underscored
the importance of promoting sustainable agriculture. The Leaders directed to
eliminate the threshold criteria from the SAARC Food Bank Agreement so as to
enable the Member States to avail food grains, during both emergency and normal
time food difficulty. The Leaders urged for early ratification of the SAARC
Seed Bank Agreement and directed to constitute the Seed Bank Board, pending
completion of ratification by all Member States. The Leaders also directed the
relevant SAARC bodies to finalize the establishment of Regional Vaccine Bank
and Regional Livestock Gene Bank.
Environment
They directed
the relevant bodies/mechanisms for effective implementation of SAARC Agreement
on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, SAARC Convention on Cooperation on
Environment and Thimphu Statement on Climate Change, including taking into
account the existential threats posed by climate change to some SAARC Member
States. They welcomed the decision to establish the SAARC Environment and
Disaster Management Centre. The Leaders underlined the urgency for the global
community to arrive at a Protocol, another legal instrument, or an agreed
outcome with legal force applicable to all by the end of 2015, based on the
principles of Common but Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR), Respective
Capabilities and Equity under the UNFCCC.
Blue
Economy
They recognized
the manifold contributions of ocean-based Blue Economy in the SAARC Region and
the need for collaboration and partnership in this area.
Health
The Leaders
recognized the importance of achieving universal health coverage (UHC),
improving health regulatory systems, preparedness for emerging and remerging
diseases, and the challenges posed by anti-microbial resistance and
non-communicable diseases. They endorsed the Male’ Resolution on Regional
Health Issues adopted at the Fourth Meeting of the SAARC Health Ministers. They
urged to continue the remarkable progress by SAARC countries in the last decade
in response to AIDS with the aim to end AIDS epidemic in the region by 2030.
They also directed to complete all necessary processes for upgrading the SAARC
TB Reference Laboratory at SAARC TB and HIV/AIDS Centre (STAC), Kathmandu to Supra-national Reference Laboratory with
necessary funding from SDF.
Education
The Heads of
State or Government expressed their resolve to eliminating illiteracy from the
region in line with the global goal of education for all and ensuring quality
education in all institutions by reforming curricula, teaching methods and evaluation
systems adequately supported by physical, technical and other facilities. The
leaders agreed to promote regional cooperation in the field of vocational
education and training. They directed their Education Ministers to develop a
Regional Strategy for Enhancing the Quality of Education in order to raise the
standards of South Asian educational institutions in order to better serve the
youth in the region. The Leaders welcomed the progress with regard to the South Asian
University.
Youth
They emphasized
the need for adopting appropriate national policies and programmes for
utilizing the youth force and their skills for economic and social development,
especially through the creation of productive self-employment opportunities.
The Leaders welcomed the declaration of July 15 as the World Youth Skills Day
at the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly and agreed to
commemorate, as appropriate, the said event by SAARC.
Women
and Children
They directed
the relevant authorities to take effective measures for preventing the
trafficking in women and children and their exploitation.
Social
Protection
The Leaders
acknowledged the special needs of the elderly, women, children,
differently-abled persons, unemployed persons, and persons working at hazardous
sites and agreed to develop and strengthen social protection for them and to
share best practices in this regard.
Migration
They also
agreed to collaborate and cooperate on safe, orderly and responsible management
of labour migration from South Asia to ensure
safety, security and wellbeing of their migrant workers in the destination
countries outside the region.
Science
and Technology
The Leaders
agreed to develop capacity of the Member States to apply space technology for
socio-economic development and the welfare of the peoples through experience
sharing among themselves. In this context, they welcomed the offer of India to
develop and launch a satellite dedicated to SAARC Countries.
Telecommunication
The Leaders
directed for collaboration and engagement among public authorities and private
stakeholders in the Member States to lower telephone tariff rates for
facilitating greater contacts among the people of the region and called for
rationalization of the tariff structures.
Tourism
The Leaders
expressed their resolve for making South Asia
an attractive common tourist destination in a sustainable manner. They directed
relevant bodies to effectively implement SAARC Action Plan on Tourism (2006)
particularly through initiating appropriate public-private collaboration. They
also called for effective and full implementation of their existing decision to
charge nationals of SAARC Member States fees for entry into archaeological and
heritage sites as applicable to their own nationals.
Culture
They directed
to effectively implement the SAARC Agenda for Culture and agreed to take
measures to preserve and restitute the South Asian cultural property and create
a SAARC heritage list together with the operational guidelines.
They declared the year 2016 as the SAARC Year of Cultural Heritage and tasked
the relevant bodies to develop an action plan for its success. They also
agreed to develop a cultural trail linking major Buddhist historical sites in
the region. The Leaders further agreed to facilitate access of persons visiting
prominent and holy sites of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and all other major
religions in South Asia.
Media
The Leaders,
recognizing the reach and influence of media, urged both public and private
media to share responsibility in the efforts towards promoting understanding
and cohesiveness of the SAARC
Member States
and their peoples.
Combating
Terrorism and trans-national Crimes
The Leaders
unequivocally condemned terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and
manifestations and underlined the need for effective cooperation among the
Member States to combat them. They directed respective authorities to ensure
full and effective implementation of the SAARC Regional Convention on
Suppression of Terrorism and its Additional Protocol, including through
enacting necessary legislations at the national level to root out terrorism.
They reiterated their call for an early conclusion of a UN Comprehensive
Convention on International Terrorism. They agreed to take effective measures
to combat illicit trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances, arms
smuggling, money laundering, counterfeit currency and other transnational
crimes. They also agreed to establish a cyber crime monitoring desk.
Governance
They reiterated
their strong commitment to ensure good governance for sustainable development
by promoting accountability, transparency, the rule of law and people’s
participation at all levels of governance.
The Leaders,
while expressing satisfaction over steady progress in democratization in South
Asia, committed to further promote and institutionalize peace, stability,
democracy and development as the common aspirations of the peoples of South Asia. In this context, they agreed on the need for
cooperation and collaboration within SAARC on issues of common interest and
concern to Member States.
Strengthening
SAARC processes
The Heads of
State or Government acknowledged the need to enhance the visibility and stature
of SAARC in international fora by, inter alia, forging common
positions on issues of mutual interest and seeking group recognition in various
multilateral institutions.
The Leaders
directed all SAARC bodies, including the Council of Ministers, sectoral
Ministerial, other bodies and institutions to develop outcome-oriented
policies, programmes, projects, and activities. The Leaders directed
rationalization of the work of the SAARC mechanisms, which could be
reviewed inter-governmentally every three years by a regular session of the
Standing Committee with a view to evaluate performance, achievements and
constraints.
The Leaders
agreed to enhance the role of the Secretariat, commensurate with the objectives
of SAARC, its areas of cooperation as well as the decisions and agreements
reached in the past. They committed to enhance the institutional capacity of
the SAARC Secretariat, in keeping with emerging realities, to enable it to
fulfill the responsibilities entrusted to it, in an effective and efficient
manner.
The Leaders
expressed satisfaction on the decision to rationalize the number and activities
of SAARC Regional Centers through their selective closure and merger.
They reiterated their resolve to make the remaining SAARC Regional Centres and
specialized institutions efficient, effective and result-oriented and directed
these institutions to initiate programmes and projects that produce tangible
outcomes.
They agreed to
hold henceforth the meetings of the SAARC Summit every two years or earlier, if
necessary, the Council of Ministers once a year, the Standing Committee at
least once a year, and the Programming Committee at least twice a year. They
also agreed to make the Programming Committee a Charter body of SAARC.
SAARC
Observers
They welcomed
the participation of Observers from Australia,
the People’s Republic of China,
the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan,
the Republic of Korea,
Mauritius, the Union of
Myanmar, the United States of America,
and the European Union at the Summit.
In furtherance of earlier decisions on establishing dialogue partnership with
States outside the region, the Leaders appreciated the Study undertaken by the
SAARC Secretariat to review and analyze the engagement with the existing
Observers to establish dialogue partnership. The Leaders directed the
Programming Committee to engage the SAARC Observers into productive,
demand-driven and objective project based cooperation in priority areas as
identified by the Member States.
Nineteenth
Summit
The Leaders
welcomed the offer of the Government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan to host
the Nineteenth Summit of SAARC.
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