While the Secretary General has been asked to complete regional poverty profile for the current year, the Commission has been directed to expedite preparation of development goals for next five years.
At the last summit, India had proposed setting up of Saarc Poverty Alleviation Fund and offered to donate $100 million for projects, and its boundaries and details were discussed by the Council of Ministers before it adjourned to meet in January next.
The Foreign Ministers of the seven member nations identified poverty as the single most daunting challenge for the region and decided to tackle it along with the help of international development institutions.
In the meeting here on the second day, under Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, the Council also went through the reports of the group of experts set up to thrash out the details of South Asian Free Trade Association (Safta) and decided to await its final report.
The Experts Group is to meet thrice in the next six months and work on "sensitive list, technical assistance and also a mechanism to compensate loss of revenue to the least developed countries" in the region.
The Council also approved Pakistan's suggestion for urgent energy development in the region and agreed to plan for action recommended by a working group noting the offer of Islamabad to host a conference of Energy Ministers and also an Energy Development Centre.
Speaking at media briefing here on Wednesday, Kasuri said that the Council had referred specific proposals on economic integration, poverty alleviation, infrastructure development and parliamentary exchanges to the relevant regional institutions for further consideration.
It was decided to set up a Saarc Forestry Centre in Bhutan and it directed the Saarc Autonomous Advocacy Group to focus on women rights and equal opportunities in social, economic and political spheres.
The Council agreed to expedite the process of seeking observer status for Saarc at UN to enhance inter-regional co-operation and to encourage collaboration with other regional organisations and UN agencies.
In addition, the Council decided to look into the modalities of establishing dialogue partnership with other regional bodies like the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), the Arabian General Council for Co-operation (AGCC) and others.
When questioned by an Indian journalist if he had raised the question of fencing of the Line of Control in Kashmir, Kasuri said that during his meeting with Natwar Singh, everything of concern to either country was raised. As far as the fencing was concerned, he said, the question had been raised at several places including the United Nations as well as directly with New Delhi.
The outgoing Saarc Secretary General, Q A M A Rahim of Bangladesh told a questioner that he was satisfied with the progress on Safta and was confident that remaining issues would be smoothed during the coming meetings of the experts committee. He hoped their report would be ready before the Dhaka Summit.