[South Asia] SAARC Development Fund of $300m to help reduce poverty

from Marinjara

Iftekhar Ahmed

The SAARC Development Fund (SDF) likely to be launched early next year with an initial amount of US$ 300 million - decided at the meeting of SAARC Finance Ministers in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) leaders in their 13th Summit held in Dhaka in November last year had decided to form the SDF.

Finance Ministers from all member-states including State Minister for Finance and Planning of Bangladesh participated the meeting while Pakistan Prime Minister inaugurated the meeting.

India would provide a major portion of the Fund while Bangladesh and Nepal agreed to contribute US$ 34.5 million each. The SDF fund would be utilized in the developing sectors like health and education and It will also help develop socioeconomic and trade relations among the members.

The Ministerial decided that the Fund would be administered by a Board of Directors to be represented by one member each from the SAARC member countries, with SAARC secretary general as chief of the Board.

The meeting also decided that the Fund would be registered with the registrar of Joint Stock Companies in any one of the member countries to be decided later. The secretariat of the Fund would be decided at the next ministerial.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has expressed its interest to provide technical support to form the Fund. The Fund would welcome funding from the multilateral donor agencies like ADB and the World Bank.

Experts said, the SDF will help reduce the poverty of the region and will also boost economy among the neighbor countries.