Mr. Chairman, all our countries have accepted the role of the private sector as crucial to economic development. In fact, with the advancement of this process, I envisage a stage where the role of our respective Governments would largely be to facilitate economic development. To this end, I propose that our Summit agrees to convene a meeting of the industrial and business sectors of our respective countries with a view to discussing ways and means of forgoing greater economic co-operation among themselves and harnessing the economic potential of the region. Sri Lanka would be happy to host such a meeting if the idea is found acceptable. Of all the accepted regional divisions, the South Asian region has perhaps the largest number of the world's poor with millions of our people suffering from hunger and other forms of material deprivation.
Poverty is one of the roots of conflict and destabilizes society.
It erodes the creativity and capabilities of human beings. It is therefore inoperative to plan and initiate programmes for the immediate eradication of this scourge. The Draft Plan of action prepared for the proposed, which formulates strategies and activities to hasten the poverty eradication process in the region, therefore has our support. The twin phenomena of terrorism and drug trafficking continue to pose a grave threat to the security and stability of Member States. These instrument remain the fundamental legal basis for the adoption of co-operative measures to combat this grave threat confronting us.