Pak welcomes Sri Lanka’s stand on SAARC summit

ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: Pakistan today welcomed Sri Lankan stand that the SAARC summit be held on schedule in Kathmandu this month saying there was no provision in the association’s charter to postpone any meeting on grounds of political change in a member state.

Pakistan shares the Sri Lankan view that a deviation from the SAARC charter and practices, particularly with regard to non-interference in the internal affairs of states, would have serious and damaging consequences for the progress, prosperity, peace and security of south asia, a foreign office release said.

A summit has never been deferred for this reason since the inception of SAARC in the last 14 years, it said.

A postponement of the summit would, therefore, be inconsistent with the charter, violate the principle of decision making by unanimity and set an unfortunate precedent for individual members to serve their narrow interests to the detriment of the prospects of advancement of regional cooperation, the release said.

The Sri Lankan Government had issued a statement yesterday following speculative reports from Kathmandu that India and other SAARC countries preferred postponement of the summit because of developments in Pakistan. (PTI)

UN mobilises disaster management team for
cyclone-hit Orissa

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2: The United Nations is mobilising a disaster assessment team to estimate the extent of damage and relief efforts required in cyclone-devastated Orissa, Secretary General Kofi Annan said even as the UN issued a worldwide appeal for relief for the victims.

Expressing distress at the havoc wrought by the supercyclone that hit Orissa on Friday killing hundreds and rendering over ten million homeless, Annan said yesterday the world body stands ready to assist in relief and recovery efforts being undertaken by the Indian Government.

The office for coordination of humanitarian affairs is mobilizing the UN disaster assessment and coordination team to assist...UN agencies in the country with coordination of international response to this disaster, including damage assessment and relief efforts, he said.

Speaking in the General Assembly, president Dr Theo-Ben Gurirab called upon the world community, in particular humanitarian agencies, to respond swiftly and generously to India’s urgent appeal for emergency relief assistance.

Worst affected were the people who had very little to begin with and who are now left in a hopeless situation.

The latest disaster is proof enough that, despite years of persistent international efforts in disaster prevention, their number and cost continue to rise, he said.

Disaster reduction, he said, must become essential elements of international strategies and national development plans if we are to mitigate — since we cannot prevent —their devastating effects. (PTI)

India, Pak among most poorly governed nations: UN Report

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2: South Asia, including India and Pakistan, is one of the most corrupt and poorly governed regions of the world where the ruling elite is often too powerful to be accountable, a UN report has said.

As many as 47 approvals are required to construct a building in Mumbai and small-scale entrepreneurs have to deal with 36 different inspectors each month, the 208 page UN Development Programme (UNDP) report, released yesterday, said citing an example of poor governance.

The report, prepared by the Mahbub-ul Haq Development Centre, said the magnitude of corruption in Pakistan alone exceeds Rs 100 billion a year or five per cent of the GDP.

In Bangladesh, the implicit private taxes — cost of corruption — of setting up business comes to 340 per cent of the estimated initial official cost.

The report decried nuclear tests by New Delhi and Islamabad, saying they led to an increase of almost 14 per cent in India’s defence budget and 8.5 per cent in the case of Pakistan.

It estimated the cost of maintaining arsenals by the two countries at 15 billion dollars over 10 years, a sum enough to educate, nourish and provide healthcare to more than 37 million neglected children in the region.

The report said poverty is on the rise again in South Asia, despite decrease in poverty in India by eight per cent between 1988 and 1993.

Except in India, poverty of opportunity — defined as lack of access to education, health, employment, sanitation and productive resources — is increasing in all other South Asian countries, the UNDP report said.

It said rampant corruption was frustrating the region’s economic and social agenda and costing it billions of dollars each year with the poorest bearing disproportionate burden.

The report asked South Asian policy makers to strongly crack down on corruption saying it impedes economic growth, accelrates poverty, threatens the legitimacy of the state and devastates human development.

Corruption in South Asia often distorts Government decisions and priorities. Further, the corrupt money often goes abroad and is not recycled within the region.

A top official agreed on the need for banks in developed nations, including Switzerland and off shore establishments, to stop accepting deposits of ill-gotten wealth.

The report conceded that there are no easy technocratic solutions to such widespread corruption and said it required a broad-based political movement and moral regeneration of the society.

To fight corruption, it called for creation of exclusive corruption courts, requirement by public officials to declare their assets, provision of immunity to informers, debating of all major contracts in Parliament and transparent procurement laws. (PTI)

USTR promises to look into India’s complaint of imbalances in WTO

WASHINGTON, Nov 2: US Trade Representative (USTR) chief Charlene Barshefsky has promised to look into India’s complaint of "imbalances and inequites" in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and rectify them.

Addressing a press conference here yesterday, she said, "to the extent India can point to specific imbalances, we, of course, are happy to look at those on a bilateral basis, or a plurilateral basis, if need be."

She, however, said, "we have said simply that we do not believe that a renegotiation of the Uruguay round is either possible or desirable. And most countries are in accord with that view."

"If India is aggrieved in certain particulars, we have said to the Government at very high levels, please spell those out in detail, let us take a look at them and try and work with you to rectify inequity, if inequity exists."

Ms Barshefsky said, agriculture was an area where India had a great interest, particularly, the removal of agricultural barriers. Issues of electronic commerce, of higher technology-related fields, including biotechnology, were of great interest of India, "which is a leader in many of these areas, including, as you know, of course, for many years in software development."

Asked as to why labour issues could not be left to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) without bringing the WTO into the picture, Ms Barshefsky said these issues were quite relevant to the work of the WTO and the working group that the US had "proposed on labour and the work already going on in the environment needs to draw upon UNEP and ILO and others."

Ms Barshefsky appeared confident that ministers would agree on launching a new round of multilateral trade negotiations when they meet in Seattle later this month.

She said she detected increasing convergence of views among a number of key countries and expected that they would resolve all outstanding issues by the end of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Seattle meeting.

Ms Barshefsky said most countries agreed that a round of negotiations should embrance the following goals: Agricultural trade reform, open markets in services trade, lower industrial goods tariffs, preferences for developing countries, promotion of electronic commerce and transparency in Government procurement.

Still outstanding issues such as dumping, investment and competition policy would be resolved by the end of the Seattle meeting, she said. (UNI)

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