President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ruwan Edirisinghe, after assuming the charge of his office, convened three-day meeting of senior vice presidents and all vice presidents from member countries in Pakistan on April 27 to finalize vision 2030.
Talking to Vice President SAARC chamber Pakistan chapter, Iftikhar Ali Malik by telephone from Colombo, he said that all would join the meetings in Islamabad as they would take some pertinent decisions. SAARC chamber will work closely with all member countries in taking regional co-operation forward. All vice presidents have also been directed to hold meeting of the executive committee and general assembly of their respective countries well ahead of April 27 to prepare a set of recommendations and proposals after threadbare discussions on vision 2030 and forward their feedback to SAARC chamber secretariat.
All vice presidents will deliberate on strategies to achieve our goals amongst other important decisions, he added. Ruwan Edirisinghe said that how to convert SAARC chamber to a result oriented regional trade and investment platform, explore partnerships and strengthen existing network with world bank, ADB, UNESCAP, UNIDO, AUSAID and Euro-chambers, how to promote tourism, sports, trade fairs, exchange of business delegations and holding of business conclave would be part of his policy priorities.
President said that he also plans to establish SAARC chamber think tank for future, activate all SAARC chamber councils, and develop a full-fledged network to facilitate trade, seamless connectivity within region and beyond, improve investment opportunities, lobbying with SAARC chamber political leaderships besides strengthening of trade portal.
He said that prospects for industrial development to focus on industrial business delegations and industrial matchmaking in addition to joint ventures in areas of interest of either member countries. He said that hectic efforts are afoot the make SAARC chamber as the "Best Chamber in the world in 2030" as the region inherited plenty of natural resource and mineral deposits in abundance.
He said SAARC chamber headquarters building committee meeting will be held on April 27 and Chairman Building Committee Iftikhar Ali Malik along with Vice Chairman Zubair Ahmad Malik will apprise the participants about the progress of under construction state of the art building.
Iftikhar Ali Malik assured the SAARC CCI President of all his cooperation to make this meeting success. He emphasized the need for expediting the process of trade liberalization in South Asian region and said that cooperation in member states would help in promotion of trade and improving quality of life of people who accounted for 1/5th of the world's population.
He further stated that SAARC should adopt a global approach and should focus on a wide range of activities like poverty alleviation, improvement of the health sector, trade and commerce in the region. SAARC CCI needs to expand its vision and be more inclusive and open to establish new linkages with interactions among private and informal sectors being important, he said.