Nepal chairs 55th session of SAARC Programming Committee

Kathmandu, July 6

The 55th session of the Programming Committee of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was held here today. The meeting was chaired by Nepal.

SAARC Secretary General Amjad Hussain B Sial addressing the one-day session congratulated Krishna Prasad Dhakal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, on assuming the chairmanship of the committee.

In his opening remarks, Dhakal reiterated Nepal’s commitment to the SAARC process and commended constructive contribution of member states in the attainment of the objectives of SAARC, stated a press release issued by the SAARC Secretariat.

The committee performs functions of selection of regional projects and their location, formulation of cost-sharing modalities and mobilisation of external resources.

The committee is also mandated to scrutinise budget of the SAARC Secretariat, SAARC Regional Centres and its specialised bodies, besides determining inter-sectoral priority and finalising annual calendar of activities. It makes its recommendations to the Standing Committee of SAARC comprising foreign secretaries.

The committee was accorded the status of a Charter Body of SAARC by the 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu in November 2014. The committee comprises heads of SAARC Division at the level of director general/joint secretary in the ministries of foreign/external affairs of the member states, who also act as national focal points of SAARC. The committee last met at the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu on December 12 and 13 last year.