SAES begins on Saturday in Dhaka focusing on cross-cutting issues

The local think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) with other premier South Asian think tanks is hosting the event  under the theme ‘Reimagining South Asia in 2030’. Over 60 participants, including ministers, high-level policymakers, leading experts and academics, trade and industry leaders, representatives of civil society and at grass roots level, and development partners, from the region and beyond will take part in the event. The summit will discuss a set of cross-cutting issues in the areas of trades, business, investment, climate change and politics to raise the volume of intra-regional trade in the highly potential but untapped sub-continent, according to organisers. The objective of SAES is to identify and address challenges for attaining sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. CPD Executive Director Professor Mustafizur Rahman talked about the event in details in the city yesterday. He said the recent government-level developments in the region have hurt progress of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), leaving immense potentials in that area untapped. “It does not mean that the importance of the forum comes to an end. We think here is the opportunity for Track-2 initiative beyond the government process to contribute. That is why the upcoming summit is very important,” he said. Asked whether SAARC will be neutralised through giving more focus on other forums, he said it is the world of variable geometrics where regional, sub-regional and cross regional cooperation are equally important. CPD Research Director and convener of the summit preparatory committee Dr Fahmida Khatun said South Asia has been the second fastest developing region after East Asia and the area’s economic growth is forecasted to gradually accelerate from 7.1% in 2016 to 7.3% in 2017. Responding to a query, Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, CPD additional research director, said the importance of SAARC will not come to an end if it engages in another regional forum like BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal)