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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Sikkim University VC is India’s nominee to South Asia Forum

GANGTOK, 22 April: The Government of India has nominated Prof Mahendra P Lama, the Sikkim University Vice Chancellor, and Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, to represent the country in the recently-constituted South Asia Forum, informs an SU press release.
Heads of State of eight South Asian countries had “emphasized the need to develop a ‘Vision Statement’” at the 16th SAARC Summit held in Thimphu last April. They agreed to form a ‘South Asia Forum’ for the generation of debate, discussion and the exchange of ideas on South Asia and its future development. The forum consists of eminent personalities from diverse backgrounds, belonging to all SAARC Member States. The Forum will provide inputs, “based on a comprehensive understanding”, to chart the future course of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in the medium and long run and recommend the necessary improvements required in the existing mechanisms, informs the release.  
Such a Forum could function on public-private partnership lines, and allow for multiple inputs beyond governments into the consideration of the future of SAARC.
The Forum would also aim to facilitate the realization of the goal of a South Asian Economic Union. The South Asia Forum will be a unique construct.  Although Track-II meetings involving some SAARC countries have been held in the past, there has been no precedent of a regional forum endorsed by the Heads of State and Government of SAARC Member States with participation from outside governments.  The Forum could eventually be modelled on existing successful initiatives of a similar nature such as the 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, the release adds.
In 1997, Prof Lama was nominated by the Government of India as its representative in the Independent Expert Group set up by the SAARC Summit held in Colombo. In 2006, he was also invited by the Asian Development Bank and the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), Kathmandu to review the entire activities of SAARC since it was established in 1986.

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