SAARC

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) consists of seven countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is an association for fostering mutual understanding, good relationship between neighbors and co-operation among the member countries.

Objective
1.    To promote the welfare of the peoples of its member countries and improve their quality of life.
2.    To promote self-reliance among the South-Asian Countries.
3.    To build mutual trust, understanding among its member counties.
4.    To promote economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific collaboration among the South-Asian countries.
5.    TO improve co-operation with other developing countries and with interracial organization.
Principles of SAARC

Co-operation is based on the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

Committees of SAARC

SAARC consists of the Standing Committees and Technical Committees.

Standing Committee:

The Standing Committee consists of the Foreign Secretaries who monitored a co-ordinate the programmer’s anciently new area of co-operation. It may also set up Action Committees for implementation of project involving more than two member counties.

Technical Committee:

The Technical Committee formulates special programmers and prepare projects and are responsible for monitoring the implementation of their activates. They submit their report to the Standing Committee through the programming Committee. TH seven Technical committees cover:

(a)    Agriculture and Rural Development
(b)    Human Resources Development
(c)    Social Development
(d)    Communication and Transport
(e)    Environment and Forestry
(f)    Science and Technology
(g)    Energy

Co-operation in Economy
Several Measures were taken to bring about co-operation in economic areas. An institutional framework for trade liberalization through SPTA (SARRC, Preferential Trading Arrangement) and SAFTA was established. The basic principles of SAPTA are :
(i)    Negotiation of tariff reform step by step and improvement through periodic views.
(ii)    Negotiation of the special needs of the Least Developed Countries and agreement on concrete measure in their favor.
(iii)    Including all products, manufactures and commodities in their row, semi-processed and processed forms.
SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) has set up a Committee of Experts which world drafts a treaty regime for creating free trade within the region.

SAARC Secretariat
The SAARC Secretariat was established in Kathmandution on 16th January 1987. It co-ordinates and monitors the implementation of SAARC activities, services, the meetings of the association and serves as the channel of communication between SAARC and other international organizations.

The Secretarial consists of Secretary-General seven Directors and general staff.

Finance
The member countries make provision in their national budgets for financing activates and programmers under the SAARC framework, This includes their assists contributions to the Secretariat budget and to the regional centers.

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