The SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on joint research activities as well as outreach and capacity-building programmes.
According to the MoU, SAARC CCI and SDPI will be collaborating and cooperating with each other in research, joint research proposals, activities, and publications to share data and other research resources. Capacity-building, including training courses is also the part of the MoU. Seminars, workshops, and conferences would be jointly held as part of the outreach activities. Sustainable quality assurance monitoring and evaluation framework will be designed. Outreach and networking programme, projects and activities as may be jointly agreed by both the parties will also be initiated under the MoU.
SDPI Executive Director Dr Abid Q Suleri, while appreciating the visit of Suraj Vadiya, President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said his visit to Islamabad and SDPI was very timely as the 19th SAARC summit was likely to be held in Islamabad this year. He said those who believed in regional connectivity and were not the part of Track I, must work on it before the 19th SAARC Summit. The SAARC was a gateway to South Asia as well as Central Asia, he said.
Dr Suleri said the trade taking place in SAARC was due to personal initiatives and risks as environment in SAARC countries was slightly non-conducive for trade. “Regional countries should learn from Nepal and Sri Lanka. Their visa regime is much better than rest of the regional countries. They are smaller economies and are less populous. Nepal, and Sri Lanka have open visa policy, we need to learn from them.”