"We have completed the legal requirements for the SAARC Development Fund. The member nations have sent in their ratifications. The SDF will be operationalised at the start of the Summit," Bhutan's Foreign Secretary Daw Penjo told reporters here.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leaders of other member countries -- Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal -- will attend the two- day summit on April 28 and 29.
Penjo said the SAARC Development Fund (SDF), with a paid up capital of USD 300 million, will also provide financial assistance to projects on women empowerment, maternal and child health and teachers' training under the social window of the SDF.
India has contributed USD 189 million for the fund which would be used for social and some other sectors in the member countries. Other member countries also would be contributing for it in various amounts.
The Foreign Secretaries of the member states met in this picturesque Bhutanese capital amid a light drizzle to finalise the agenda for the ministerial meeting tomorrow.
Penjo said that the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) issue the Silver Jubilee Thimphu Declaration that will reflect on the past achievements and chart a course for the future to make SAARC a robust body.
Climate change will be the theme of the 16th SAARC Summit and the leaders will also issue a joint statement on the urgency to tackle climate change as the SAARC region is one of the areas most vulnerable to the effects of global warming, Penjo said.
Arriving here for the summit, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna pitched for introspection of the past by the eight-nation grouping and chart a course for the future.
"The Summit will give Member States an opportunity to introspect on the past and chart a course for the future," he said.
He said an Agreement on Trade in Services would also be signed during the Summit, thereby opening up new vistas of economic cooperation among SAARC countries.
"As we head for the 16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu, we are imbued with a sense of confidence and optimism in SAARC as a vehicle for regional development," he said.
Krishna said over the years, SAARC has made visible strides and achieved many milestones and created the institutional and legal framework for regional cooperation through agreements and programmes covering almost every area of importance to the region, ranging from Poverty Alleviation and Food Security to Terrorism and Women's Empowerment.
Under the statement on environment, the eight member countries are expected to commit to exchanging their knowledge and best practices, undertake capacity building and transfer of eco-friendly technology to each other.
The Bhutanese Foreign Secretary, who chaired the Standing Committee meeting, said there was also an agreement to double the quantum of reserves in the SAARC Food Bank from the current 4,86,000 tonnes.
SAARC Secretary-General Sheel Kant Sharma refused to draw any comparisons between regional groupings across the world and SAARC saying each represented a different set of interests.
He listed out instruments on fighting terrorism, mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, South Asian Free Trade Agreement and setting up of the South Asian University as among the key achievements of SAARC over the past 25 years.
The meet is also expected to come out with the rules and regulations for the Saarc University. The first academic session of the varsity will begin in August this year.
The University is proposed to have 5,000 students from all the eight SAARC member countries and a faculty of 500.
At least half of the students would be from India and the rest of the seats would be divided among other seven countries on pro-rata basis depending on criteria like population.
Besides delegates from the member nations, the Summit would also be attended by officials from nine observer nations -- Australia, China, European Union, Iran, Japan, Mauritius, Myanmar, South Korea and the US.
Over 400 delegates from SAARC nations, 50 from observer countries and more than 300 journalists are attending the summit. PTI SKU ETB 04261933