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Setting off the SAARC summit process, its Programming Committee comprising senior officials of the forum's seven member-states began here Tuesday a two-day consultation to arrange the business to be transacted by the South Asian leaders in their Dhaka meet, reports UNB.
On the first day, they reviewed progress in activities and implementation of programmes under the Regional Integrated Programme of Action (RIPA) under the SAARC.
The SAARC Programming Committee also considered reports of four technical committees and five working groups that met in 2004 and 05 in areas of socio-economic cooperation, related to women, youth and children, health and population, transport, agriculture and rural development, tourism, telecommunications and ICT.
It also considered reports on biotechnology, energy and intellectual property rights. The committee made a number of recommendations for further strengthening and broadening regional cooperation in these key areas for next calendar year.
It is the 26th meeting of the SAARC Programming Committee, being held with M Ruhul Amin, Director General (SAARC, BIMSTEC and ACD) at Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, in the chair.
The Bangladesh delegation proposed two separate guidelines for the function of the SAARC Technical Committees and Working Groups for further improving their working methods and effectiveness.
Bangladesh -- now poised to take over the chair of the forum at the Nov 12-13 summit -- also broached a set of guidelines for the seven SAARC Regional Centres to infuse greater dynamism in these entities.
The Programming Committee made recommendations on Drug Law Enforcement Mechanism to combat drug trafficking and abuse in the SAARC countries.
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