Foreign Secretaries of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) will meet here on Sunday to discuss a host of issues ahead of the meeting of their foreign ministers beginning from July 20.
Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar will chair the two-day session of the standing committee to prepare a comprehensive agenda for the meeting for the Council of Ministers' moot.
The standing committee meeting would look at Safta; promotion of investment standards; quality control and measurement; and co-operation in the areas of customs, transport and statistics.
The Foreign Secretaries would also review the progress on interaction of Saarc with other regional and international organisations, notably ADB, World Bank, UNDP, Unicef, Unifem, UNEP, Unido, and Asean.
The meeting would also review the progress in obtaining observer status with the United Nations.
The programming committee of senior Saarc officials in their meeting considered reports of the technical committees on human resource development, science and technology, environmental and forestry, agriculture and rural development.
"This round of Saarc sessions has a full agenda. Pakistan takes pride in hosting Saarc's three-tier sessions," the Foreign Secretary said in a statement.
Khokhar said that leaders of all Saarc countries are committed to enhancing the interlocking South Asian regional economic relationship.
The signing of Safta framework agreement during the 12th Saarc Summit has given a fresh impetus to regional co-operation.
"Pakistan is committed to taking the Saarc to a higher plane of economic, commercial, social and cultural co-operation," he said. Pakistan is the current chairman of the Saarc.
Besides Pakistan, the Saarc includes as its members India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives.
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