SAARC Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SAARC CCI) President, Ruwan Edirisinghe led delegation attended the SAARC Development Fund Partnership Conclave 2018 on Regional Integration through Project Collaboration and Investments and the event has strategic and regional importance in South Asia.
SAARC Development Fund (SDF) Partnership Conclave 2018 was held on July 2- 3, 2018 in International Centre, New Delhi, India.
The conclave was aimed towards Strategic Growth in the South Asia region through Project Collaboration and Regional Integration and proposes to: Solicit Cross-Border Project Co-Financing under the Social, Economic & Infrastructure Windows of SDF in SAARC Member States. Build partnerships with various organizations for Fund Mobilization and Investments in SAARC Member States.
Speaking at the event SAARC CCI President, Ruwan Edirisinghe highlighted importance of improving Intra-regional trade within South Asia to reduce poetry and boost job creation and SDF is the main instrument that will facilitate economic cooperation via financial connectivity among the SAARC regions.
For the Conclave Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Government of India was the chief guest.
SAARC CCI an apex body of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is to promote economic cooperation in South Asia and has augmented the efforts of SAARC to achieve the milestones of regional integration.
SAARC CCI believes that intra-regional investment, intra-regional trade and joint ventures among the SAARC member states is the way forward to address the key challenges the region faces; poverty and job creation. SAARC CCI is committed to unleashing the true potential of SAARC region. The SDF is currently implementing 12 regional projects with more than 70 implementing in all the eight SAARC member-countries under the social window funding.
Currently, the two main projects finalized by SDF are; a waste-to-energy project in Sri Lanka involving participation of India and a hydro-power scheme in Nepal with participation of Bangladesh and India.
As per SDF Chief Executive Officer, Sunil Motiwal, the two projects entail a cumulative investment of $30 million. Other potential regional connectivity projects are under SDF’s active consideration to co-finance in SAARC member-states. Therefore, SDF is well poised to contribute significantly in achieving its developmental role in the SAARC region along with SAARC CCI.
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