SAARC is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising 8 countries of South Asia established in 1985. The document provides an overview of SAARC including its structure, history, functions, summits, member countries, objectives and agenda for developing a South Asian Economic Union by 2010. It concludes that SAARC countries must cooperate to foster peace, prosperity and implement plans to institutionalize an economic union by 2010 for the benefit of over 1.5 billion people in the region.

1. PROJECT REPORT
ON
SAARC
(South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation)
SUBMITED TO:- SUBMITED BY:-
PG. DEPARTENT OF SUKHCHAIN
COMMERCE B.A.F. 1ST
ROLL NO. 9007

2. TABLE OF CONTANTS
 INTRODUCTION
 STRUCTURE
 HISTORY
 FUNCTIONS
 SAARC SUMMITS
 SAARC COUNTRIES
 OBJECTIVES
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCE

3. INTRODUCTION
Late President Shaheed Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh was the pioneer to propose South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1980 and all the Seven Member
States (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) agreed to the
proposal to bring the SAARC in reality. On the 8th December 1985, the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was born with the signing the Charter by
the Heads of Government; in the history first SAARC summit meeting. Now the number
of member states has become eight.
The SAARC Group of Experts Meeting on the establishment of the SMRC was held during
25-26 November 1992 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

4. STRUCTURE OF THE CENTRE:
The Centre has been started with the following divisions:
i.Theoretical Division: This division consist, of experienced 1 (One) Head of the
Division and 2 (Two) Scientists with background in tropical meteorology,
numerical weather predication techniques especially for use in the tropics, 4
(Four) Research Assistant and I (One) Messenger.
ii.SYNOPTIC DIVISION: This division is consist of 1 (One) Head of the Division
and 2 (Two) Scientists with experience in analysis and forecasting of weather in
the region, 4 (Four) Research Assistant and I (One) Messenger.

5. HISTORY
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) comprises the seven
countries of South Asia, i.e.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.The idea of regional
cooperation in South Asia was first mooted in May 1980. After consultations, the Foreign
Secretaries of the seven countries met for the first time in Colombo in April 1981. This was
followed by a meeting of the Committee of the Whole in Colombo in August-September
1981, which identified five broad areas for regional cooperation. the Integrated Programme
of Action (IPA) initially in five agreed areas of cooperation namely, Agriculture; Rural
Development; Telecommunications; Meteorology; and Health and Population Activities.
The Heads of State or Government at their First SAARC Summit held in Dhaka on 7-8
December 1985 adopted the Charter formally establishing the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation

6. FUNCTION OF SAARC
The functions of the SAARC Disaster Management Centre are:
a. to analyze information, undertake research and disseminate research findings on
disaster management among the Member Countries;
b. to develop educational materials and conduct academic and professional courses on
disaster management;
c. to organize training and awareness programmes for various stakeholders on disaster
management for the Member Countries;
d. to develop training modules on various aspects on disaster management and conduct
programmes of Training for Trainers including simulation exercises;
e. to undertake, organize, facilitate and participate in workshops, conferences, seminars,
lectures etc on various aspects of disaster management in the Member Countries;
f. to undertake publication of journals, research papers and books and establish and
maintain online resource centre in furtherance of the aforesaid objects;
g. to collaborate with other SAARC Centres, particularly SMRC, SCZMC and SAARC Forestry
Centre to achieve synergies in programmes and activities

7. SAARC SUMMITS
First summit
The first summit was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 7–8 December 1985.
Second summit
The second summit was held in Bangalore on 16–17 November 1986.
Third summit
The third summit was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 2–4 November 1987.
Fourth summit
The fourth summit was held in Islamabad, Pakistan on 29–31 December 1988.
Fifth summit
The fifth summit was held in Malé, Maldives on 21–23 November 1990 .
Sixth summit
The sixth summit was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 21 December 1991.
Fourteenth summit
The fourteenth summit of SAARC was held in New Delhi, on 3rd-4 April 2007.

8. SAARC COUNTRIES
Established on December 8, 1985, South Asian Association
For Regional Cooperation, popularly known as SAARC.
SAARC is a unique concept. This esteem group is the one
combined vision of eight different countries of South-east
Asia like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,India, Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These SAARC nations are
home to nearly 1.5 billion people or about 22% of world’s
population.

9. OBJECTIVES
Objectives of SAARC include promotion of socio-economic developments within SAARC
countries and also develop a productive relationship with regional and international
organizations. Based on this, objectives can be categorized as under:
a) To promote the welfare of the people of South-Asia and to improve their
quality
b) To accelerate economic growth.
c) To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic
cultural, technical and scientific fields.
d) To promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of
South Asia.
e) To cooperate with international and regional organizations.

10. SAARC: WORK PACKAGES
Ten areas of work within SAARC region were identified and assignment were given to
various SAARC countries. Topics were allocated together with the countries responsible for
the same. India was given four assignments namely, Business Information and Data
Networking, Human Resource Development, Science and Technology and Social
Dimension of Business Development. Pakistan had two topics i.e., Trade and Investment.
Sri Lanka was given an interesting topic namely, women entrepreneurs. Bangladesh was
expected to handle telecommunication. Travel and Tourism were to be handled by Nepal.
Bhutan and Nepal had joint responsibility for energy.

11. SAARC: LOGISTICS FOR VISION 2010
SAARC is the largest geo-economic block of the world with 1.2 billion people. Its GDP,
based on purchasing power parity is $ 3.57 trillion. Its combined average growth is over
7%. Its plan includes a common market i.e. SAPTA. This represents a hope for the largest
pool of poor people of the world, with a consumer base of over 425 million people in the
middle class bracket. It is larger than any economic block of the world. It has the potential
of contributing a great deal to the ever evolving global economy.
SAARC region has the following unique features of the world:
1. It has one of the most ancient living civilizations in the world.
2. It is a sleeping giant and has started to move its arms.
3. All religions, faiths, and ideologies of the world live together.
4. It has the largest irrigated land areas in the world with over 67 million hectares.
5. It has the second largest railway network of the world after the US.
6. It offers one of the largest English speaking area.
7. It has labour force of 423 million people. This is the largest of any other economic
block in the world.
8. It also is home to some of the poorest living people on the earth but has increased
job opportunities and self-employment schemes in all SAARC countries.

12. AGENDA FOR SOUTH ASIAN ECONOMIC
UNION BY 2010
Year 2001 was set as target date to achieve SAFTA. This was expected to set pace of
development in core trade and economic cooperation in the member countries.
However, the dream has not yet been realized.
The Ninth SAARC Summit was held in Male, Maldives during May 12 - 14, 1997 and
directed the establishment of Group of Eminent Persons (GEP). This group was asked to
undertake the following tasks:
1. Develop a long range vision.
2. Formulate a perspective plan of action including a SAARC agenda for 2000 and
beyond.
3. Spell out the targets that can and must be achieved by the year 2020.

13. CONCLUSION
It is high time that all the SAARC countries must respect each other and strive for
developing peace and tranquillity in the region and give genuine tribute to the principles
of SAARC and implement a plan paving the way for institutionalising South Asian
Economic Union by 2010. This is needed to usher in a new era of prosperity for the
teeming millions of the above region.

14. REFERENCE
http://www.saarc-smrc.org/introduction.html
http://www.saarctourism.org/saarc.pdf
http://www.saarctourism.org/
http://www.eicindia.org/eic/certificates/saarc.htm
http://www.defencejournal.com/2002/may/economic.htm
http://saarc-sdmc.nic.in/sdmc_functions.asp
http://www.southasianmedia.net/conference/Regional_Cooperation/critiquing.htm