Address At The Joint Call By The Heads Of States /governments Attending The 14th Saarc Summit

New Delhi : 03-04-2007

Realizing the Uniqueness of SAARC

?Connectivity and competencies leads to prosperity?

I am delighted to welcome the Heads of States and Heads of Government of SAARC countries from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Srilanka participating in the 14th SAARC Summit. My greetings to all of you. Particularly, I extend a special welcome to Afghanistan into the SAARC fraternity. On behalf of the Members of both Houses of Parliament, my Government and the people of India, I wish you a successful outcome to your deliberations for making SAARC countries mutually benefit from each other?s knowledge and experiences.

Your Excellencies, together we represent 1.47 billion people of this planet, which is around 25% of the world population. The inspiring and unique aspects of SAARC countries, that we share, are: firstly, the high intensity of bio-diversity in our region; secondly, we have the largest population of youth of the world; thirdly, our combined purchasing power has the potential to be the highest in the world; and also we are blessed and interconnected with a civilizational heritage that goes back for thousands of years. What better environment can any region in the world have, which is more favorable for socio-economic development, promoting peace and prosperity of the region as a whole, if we share a common vision and work together to realize our vision through dynamic missions.

In spite of these major structural advantages, there is an impression among the people of the SAARC nations that we have yet to make a distinctive contribution that can make a difference to lives of people in our region. Can we now together make an attempt to change this impression? I would like to share with you, if you agree; two experiences that relate to the impact of connectivities and rural development that are actually making a difference.

Vision for SAARC 2017

Let me start with my visualization of SAARC countries in the year 2017:
a) The people living below poverty line will become near zero from the existing 25%.
b) The per capita income of the SAARC region as the whole will increase from the present 2,777 US dollars to 10,000 US dollars.
c) Infant mortality rate will become less than 10 per thousand from the present 260 per thousand prevalent in some of the countries.
d) All the SAARC countries will be free from water borne diseases and receive affordable, quality heath care.
e) The SAARC countries will realize the goal of 100% literacy from the existing less than 40% in some of the countries.
f) All citizens of SAARC countries will be empowered with quality education, healthcare and employment potential leading to overall enhancement in prosperity and happiness.

Core Competence of SAARC Countries

The main objective of SAARC is to provide a platform for the peoples of South Asia to work together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding for accelerating the process of economic and social development of Member States. SAARC countries have several core competencies and every country has a vision to become a developed nation in a time bound manner. Let us now focus on some of them which can be collectively pooled for mutual benefit. Afghanistan is endowed with natural resources such as untapped oil and natural gas, minerals and metals and animal husbandry resources such as sheep and lamb wool in substantial quantities. The Grameen Bank concept of Bangladesh which has made a difference to the life of many people has received international attention and acclaim. Bhutan is known for its hydel resources and is a model for the promotion of the concept of Happiness Index. India over the years has established itself well in IT and e-connectivity. Maldives is known for its innovation in tourism. Nepal for its bio-diversity and hydel resources. Pakistan has created a name for itself in cotton, textiles and apparels. Sri Lanka is known for tea and rubber processing. Let us see how these national competitive advantages can be harnessed for accelerating the transformation of the region as a whole.

Social and Economic Development ? Transforming SAARC into a fully developed region

Since over one billion citizens of SAARC countries live in villages, there is an urgency for all of us to improve the conditions of rural life through better physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity, which together will lead to comprehensive economic connectivity. For this mission, we have to ensure that the overall GDP growth rate for SAARC countries has to reach 8% to 10%, and maintained at this level for the next ten years. For this, employment generation, particularly in the rural areas is very essential.

This necessitates spreading the development process to the rural sector.India has nucleated programme called PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) involving a geographically co-located clusters of multiple villages with four connectivities namely physical, electronic and knowledge leading to economic connectivity. India with its six hundred

thousand villages needs to have 7,000 PURAs. The specific needs of the PURA for different SAARC countries can be worked out by the specialists based on terrain and socio-economic conditions prevailing in the particular region. Each PURA cluster, apart from concentrating on reinforcing agriculture, will emphasize on agro processing, development of rural craftsmanship, dairy, silk production and fishing in those nations having coast lines, so that the non-farm revenue for the rural sector is enhanced, based on the competitive advantage of the region.

It is also essential that the rural economy should be driven by renewable energies such as solar, wind, bio-fuel and conversion of municipal waste into power. With this approach, the core competencies in the rural sector would be harnessed for sustainable development of the economy as a whole.

PURA envisages an integrated development plan with employment generation as the focus, driven by provision of the habitat, healthcare, education, skill development, physical and electronic connectivity and marketing in an integrated way for a cluster of villages with critical mass. In India, we have five operational PURAs such as Periyar PURA, Byrraju PURA, Loni PURA, Chitrakoot PURA and Sakthi PURA. Government of India is also planning, in the first phase, to start two PURA clusters in each of the 600 districts in the country during the 11th plan period. With this strategy for the bottom of the economic pyramid, India should be able to transform the rest of its village economy into cluster based, economically viable village systems in the shortest possible time.

Profile of a typical PURA Mission

Based on the terrain and climatic conditions there could be four types of PURA in the SAARC Region. They are plain terrain PURA, hill PURA, coastal PURA and desert PURAs. In the plains and coastal regions, the PURA population may be in the region of 20,000 to 100,000, cluster into economic systems of 20 to 30 villages. In a hilly or desert region, PURA may have a population of 7,500 to 15,000 people in a cluster of 30 to 100 villages or hamlets. Only then we can assure a high quality of life in the rural areas in a cost effective manner.

Creating competitive advantage for PURAs

PURAs are conceived not only as self-sufficient, economically viable village clusters, but each cluster is endowed with its unique competitive advantage in the form of a portfolio of special products relevant to that region and the local talents and skills. In this way each PURA will be able to contribute to the rest of the economy within and outside the country and thereby contribute to overall competitive advantage and economic strength of the entire SAARC region. Let me now give one example to illustrate the competitive advantage for PURA.

Periyar PURA (Tamilnadu): Periyar PURA complex pioneered by Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Vallam, Tanjore is functioning near Vallam having a cluster of over 65 villages in Tamilnadu which involves a population of 1 lakh. This PURA complex has all the three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. The center of activity emanates from the women engineering college that provides the electronic and knowledge connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centers, primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centers. This has resulted in

large-scale employment generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 850 self-help groups. Two hundreds acres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. All the villagers are busy in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing centre. This model has emanated independent of any government initiative. The committed leadership has been provided by the engineering institution. Recently, 5 of Periyar PURA villages are connected through Wi-MAX Wireless and having minimum 4 mbps connectivity with the Periyar PURA nodal centre. It provides a sustainable economic development in that region.

Export Products from PURA Clusters: The members of Periyar PURA in Vallam have selected 40 products out of 123 which will be produced by Periyar PURA with the support of an Export Promotion Organization. They displayed these products in an exhibition at New Delhi during February 2007 with remarkable success; the PURA members now propose to exhibit their products once again in Japan during June 2007. The feedback from each exhibition will be used to improve the quality and attributes of the product so that the customer satisfaction is enhanced. Technical Consultancy support for improving the product is being provided by academic institutions like Periyar Maniammai College of Engineering for Women. This type of localized support centre ensures creation and faster delivery of PURA products to acceptable national and international standards, by our craftsman and innovators in rural areas. This type of experience we will definitely share with SAARC countries. Now, I would like to share with you an international partnership experience between India and African Union.

Pan African e-Network

During the year 2003-04, I visited African countries such as Sudan, Tanzania and South Africa. I addressed the Pan African Parliament on 16 September 2004, at Johannesburg, South Africa which was attended by Heads of 53 member countries of the African Union. Based on my study of connectivity needs of African countries in communication, healthcare and education, I proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network using seamless and integrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting all the 53 African countries.

Twelve universities (7 from India and 5 from Africa), seventeen super specialty hospitals (12 from India and five from Africa), fifty three tele-medicine centers and fifty three tele-education centres in Africa will be connected through the Pan-African e-Network project. The first project on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia has already been commissioned. One of our Indian Universities IGNOU has taken up the MBA Course for 34 Ethiopian students of Addis Ababa and Harmaya Universities. As regards, tele-medicine, the specialists from CARE Hospital, Hyderabad are providing one-hour live tele-consultation daily to doctors in Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa in Cardiology and Radiology since November 2006. The Pan African e-Network will primarily provide Tele-Education, Tele-Medicine, Internet, videoconferencing and VOIP services. It also supports e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological services. Each remote location will be able to access the Internet through the network by linking the HUB to Internet backbone. Using this network the Heads of the State in all the 53 countries will be connected for instant communication. The network is designed to have 169 terminals and a central hub to deliver tele-education and tele-medicine services. The proposed network will utilize state-of-the-art technology and can be integrated with the latest broadband technologies like Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. The network is scalable to support different applications catering to increased number of users. 22 countries will be connected by the first half of 2007 and the remaining 31 countries will be operationalized by early 2008. This international partnership is mainly aimed to meet the millennium development goals of African Union. Based on this experience, I would like to propose the creation of a SAARC knowledge platform which will generate the knowledge input needed for sustaining our developmental growth and accelerate the regional transformation.

SAARC Knowledge Platform

SAARC Knowledge Platform will combine the core competencies of the SAARC nations and will become the launch pad for many innovations that are waiting to be unearthed only by the combined power of all the scientists and technologists drawn from SAARC countries.

Missions of SAARC Knowledge Platform: The convergence of Bio, Nano and ICT is expected to touch every area of concern to the humanity. The ?SAARC Knowledge Platform? will take up the missions, in some of the areas given below, which are of utmost urgency to all of us to make SAARC region a safe, sustainable and peaceful and prosperous place to live:

1. SAARC Nations? e-Network: Creating e-Partnership in education, healthcare, business and trade similar to PAN-African network.
2. Energy: Transforming energy security to energy independence for the SAARC region.
3. Water: Enhancing quality of existing resources, efficient recycling technology, rain water harvesting, interlinking of rivers, seawater desalination using renewable energy.
4. Healthcare: Vaccine for HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and other water borne diseases in the region and also using traditional medicine and working towards molecule to drugs programme based on the raw materials available in the region.
5. Agriculture and food processing: Increasing the per capita yield from agriculture, new-technologies for preservation, developing varieties of crops for semi-arid and arid region.
6. Capacity building: Capacity building in state-of-the-art internationally competitive skills development and higher education with research as a focus through partnership among the educational and R & D institutions of SAARC countries through direct and virtual class rooms.
The core competence of the SAARC countries will have to be pooled for design, development and marketing of world class products and systems. I would request Your Excellencies, to consider the establishment of ?SAARC Knowledge Platform? meeting the unique needs of the regional development and arrive at a roadmap for its time bound implementation. SAARC countries will become equal partners in this SAARC Knowledge Platform, driven by the core competence of each country in the region.

Conclusion

India is conscious that GDP alone does not fully reflect in the quality of life of a large number of people, particularly in rural areas and even in urban areas. This may be true in SAARC nations also. For a comprehensive and inclusive approach to a measure of true socio-economic development, we have evolved what is called a ?National Prosperity Index (NPI)? which is a summation of (a) annual growth rate of GDP; plus (b) improvement in quality of life of the people, particularly those living below the poverty line plus (c) the adoption of a value system derived from our civilizational heritage in every walk of life.

It may be noted that the concept of National Prosperity Index includes the factor of the International Human Development Index. That is NPI=a+b+c. Particularly, ?b? is a function of availability of housing, good water, nutrition, proper sanitation, quality education, quality healthcare and employment potential. ?c? is a function of promoting the joint family system, creation of a spirit of working together, leading a righteous way of life, removing social inequities, and above all promoting a conflict free, harmonious society. This will be indicated by peace in families and communities, reduction in corruption index, reduction in court cases, elimination of violence against children and women and communal tensions. There should also be progressive reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line leading to its becoming near zero by 2017. All our efforts in improving the national economic performance should be guided by the measured National Prosperity Index of the nation at any point of time.

Based on this or a similar model let us evolve a SAARC Prosperity Index which will represent the overall quality of life of the people in the SAARC region. This will enable the SAARC organization and its systems of programme management to implement SAARC programmes in an effective manner that will make a difference to the lives of the people in the region.

I wish you all a purposeful and productive deliberation towards setting up a roadmap for enhancing prosperity and harmony in the SAARC region.

May God bless you.

Discussions with SAARC Members

The PM of Pakistan agreed with Rashtrapatiji that employment generation is the key to success for all the SAARC nations. The concept of National Prosperity Index (NPI) put forth by Rashtrapatiji is indeed innovative and covers all the key factors involved in the upliftment of the rural poor. He felt that the rate of reduction in poverty should also be included within this concept of NPI. He informed that a detailed household income survey is being conducted in Pakistan which will form the basis of reaching at an indicator like the NPI suggested by Rashtrapatiji. He suggested that the ?South Asian Knowledge Platform? should be called the SAARC Knowledge Platform so that it carries an identity of a SAARC initiative.

The Sr. Advisor from Bangladesh stated that Rashtrapatiji has a given a real vision to the SAARC nations. The question was how to achieve this by the year 2017. He agreed that all the SAARC countries had competitive advantages in different fields and the SAARC countries would do well to learn from each other?s experience wherever they have the competitive advantage. For example, the Knowledge Platform can help the countries network with each other and share experiences and best practices across the SAARC nations.

The Afghanistan President wished that he should have been student of Rashtrapatiji to learn all these interesting concepts. However, while the goal of higher per capita income by the year 2017 was laudable, he stated that Afghanistan?s per capita income at present is 355 dollars. As such, he wondered if there is a real possibility of increasing the per capita income to 10,000 dollars by the year 2017.

He stated that they are facing an enormous resource crunch at present especially in the field of energy. He wanted to know more about the concept of converting municipal waste into energy. Rashtrapatiji narrated the example of Hyderabad city where municipal solid waste is being segregated, the bio-waste is being converted into bricks and used as a fuel in boilers from which 7 MW of power is being generated at present. A similar project in under implementation at Delhi. The Afghan President felt that such a programme could solve a lot of energy problems of the town areas but in the rural areas people still depend on biomass which is grown locally. He also highlighted the fact that while some SAARC countries are rich in water resources, others like Afghanistan have to face serious droughts.

The PM of Bhutan stated that the concept of PURA is very interesting and is timely because it will prevent people from rushing to big cities. He also agreed that the concept of preservation of our bio- diversity is very important especially for countries like Bhutan where there has not been much loss of their bio-diversity. However, they should protect all their bio-resources for scientific exploitation.

As far as water was concerned, Bhutan was lucky and the power generation projects have helped Bhutan increase their national income. He thanked Rashtrapatiji for the concept of National Prosperity Index which is linked to the Gross National Happiness Index which has been promoted by Bhutan for the last 35 years. He would be happy to share their philosophy of this index of happiness with all the SAARC countries.

The President of Maldives expressed deep concern at the environmental degradation of the Island States because of the threat of global warming and climate change. For countries like Maldives, it was indeed a matter of survival. They are faced with this problem on a daily basis and he gave the example of the recent tsunami in which 62% of their GDP was washed away in half an hour. They are still struggling to get back on their feet and therefore, he stressed the need for environmental protection for their very survival.

The PM of Nepal said that the concept of Hill PURA is very relevant for Nepal. Unless the poor are provided with employment or income generating activities, they would not listen either to philosophy or to reason. He felt that an empty stomach is the devil?s workshop. Therefore, he felt that it is better to concentrate on feeding the hungry poor and to address their stomachs first. Other things can follow later. He said that the Heads of SAARC missions should sit together and provide a solution to this fundamental problem of poverty.

He sated that Nepal is situated in between the two ?elephants? of China and India and made a call for including China also as a member of SAARC.

The Sri Lankan President said that peace and harmony in all the nations is very important for the SAARC region. Only then, will it be possible to sustain the social and economic development momentum of the rural areas. More concerted efforts is required to look after the rural areas and to develop them. It is the responsibility of the Governments to ensure that their poor are properly fed.

In conclusion I would like to give an example of how in the past villages had rechargeable water tanks which would fill up during good rains and would supply the needs of the village during times of drought. Many of such tanks have now been lost and therefore India had started a big programme to reclaim such water tanks and bodies.

In the area of environment, I would like to mention that the developed world is injecting 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. This is leading to global warming and climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to switch over from fossil fuels to eco-friendly fuels like bio-diesel.

In the area of terrorism, I feel that that once we give a boost to the economic development of the SAARC areas, the terrorism will automatically get minimized. Of course, political initiative has also got to be there but the role of economic prosperity in reducing terrorism cannot be denied.

Regarding Nepal, I feel that forestry based employment generation programmes should be the focus. For example projects based on bamboo cultivation start generating income after gestation period of 3-4 years and can become quite remunerative for our rural areas.

I thank all the Heads of State/Govts. for participating in this productive meeting.

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam