Gangtok: 5th May:
The first meeting of the Steering Committee of the prestigious and
newly created South Asia Forum ended in New Delhi. The meeting decided
to have the first South Asia Forum Summit on the theme of “South Asian
Economic Union” in September 2011. Over 100 top business leaders,
public figures, academics, politicians and representatives of civil
society organizations will participate in the same.

The South Asia Forum Summit will now be an annual event held before
the SAARC Summit. It will be organized in the pattern of Boao Forum
for Asia (BFA) based in China, the World Economic Forum (WEF) based in
Davos, Switzerland and the Asia Pacific Roundtable (APR) based in
Australia.

In the first South Asia Forum Steering Committee Meeting India was
represented by Prof Mahendra P Lama, Founding Vice Chancellor of
Sikkim University and Shri Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Additional Secretary,
Ministry of External Affairs; Bangladesh by its former Foreign
Secretary and Bhutan by its former Home Minister. The South Asia Forum
was established by the head of the state and governments of eight
South Asian countries at the 16th SAARC Summit held at Thimphu, Bhutan
in April 2010.

(Courtesy: Sikkim Mail)

 

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