Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro on Saturday called for visa liberalisation among Saarc countries for increasing interaction and rapid development in member countries.
He was addressing the inaugural session, as chief guest, of the 3-day Third Convention and Sixth apex body meeting of Saarc Diploma Engineers Forum (SDEF) at FTC auditorium here.
Referring to the main theme of 'Role of Diploma Engineers in Poverty Reduction in Saarc Region', he said that poverty alleviation is the common desire of every human being.
"In Pakistan, we are trying to develop infrastructure, increase income, communications links like farm-to-market roads, bridges, rail and road and cheap housing facilities for ameliorating the lot of masses," he said.
Pakistan is going through a multi-prong strategy of broadening the service base and efforts are afoot to expand the water supply, sanitation, food supplementary programme, assistance from Zakat and Ushr and extending micro credit programme to general public without any collateral so that they can establish small shops, start other business, Soomro said, adding that self-employment opportunities thus created could lead to overall development.
He said that social indicators are improving in Pakistan as well as in the region.
There are enormous opportunities in the region which are required to be pooled and used for the benefit of hundreds of millions of South Asians.
He lauded the efforts of diploma engineers (DEs) and said that as "mid-level implementers of plans and policy, execution of technical work they can make critical difference."
The Senate Chairman advised them to employ technical skills acquired by them for human resource development and better facilities in all spheres of life like health, education, national construction projects.
He said that SDEF members would have contribute vigorously towards social development, social projects and focus on quality, cost-effective and sustainable development while carrying out tasks assigned to them.
Endorsing the proposal advanced by Secretary General of SDEF, IDEF and leader of delegation from Bangladesh A K M A Hamid for establishing 'Centres of Excellence' in Saarc countries he said that these centres would provide skilled labour force best of the best with competitive edge over work force from other countries of the world.
He said that Pakistan has always extended every possible assistance to the Saarc countries and also worked hard in uplifting the standard of technical education in the country Khadga KC, chairman of Apex Body SDEF, in his address said that 30 percent of the population of Saarc countries is living below poverty line, and rapid, concerted joint development efforts are the only solution to the menace of poverty.
DEs can play a vital role because of their nature of work of executing, supervising and maintaining the projects of public importance.
That is why DEs are often termed 'People's Engineers' for their grass-roots work, said Khadga. However he warned against concentration of resources and said that this can create frustration among people.
He stressed the need for more and more contacts between people of Saarc region. Giving a note of caution he asked that fellow engineers should change and dedicate themselves to the cause of their respective country men. He also called for lifting visa among Saarc countries.
Hamid said that DEs have an indispensable role to play in the nation-building process.
Saarc region has a population of over 1400 million and out of 80-90 percent activities of SDEF are dedicated to the service of people while rest cover the welfare of its 130 million members, he said, urging DEs to work relentlessly for the common people.
Earlier, Akhlaq Ahmed, Chairman PDEF and Co-chairman of Saarc DEE Apex body said that PDEF was established in 1961 and since then has been working for masses. He informed the gathering that during the three-day moot technical level deliberation will be held on topics including IT and KT, Irrigation and Water Management Transportation, Electronic media, Power Generation and Educational Quality Improvement as all these issues have direct relevance with main theme of the year 'Poverty Alleviation'.
The convention and apex body moot is likely to conclude on May 3 with 'Karachi Declaration' of Saarc DEE "and we are likely to come up with planning for next two years (2004-05) to help our respective countries and people in social and infrastructural development," said Akhlaq.
Later souvenirs and mementoes were presented to the chief guest by SDEE members.
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