Date:04/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/04/stories/2007060405611200.htm

National

Help shape Asian century: Somnath

Staff Correspondent

SHIMLA: "21st Century belongs to Asia and it will be an Asian Century," said Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee while inaugurating the two-day conference of parliamentarians from SAARC countries here on Saturday.

Organised by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), around 83 members of parliament from South Asian countries and 67 media persons and experts participated in the conference.

Mr. Chatterjee, in his address, appealed to the people, governments, parliamentarians, the media and civil society groups of South Asia to help shape the Asian century. He praised SAFMA for taking the responsibility of strengthening the media capacities and promoting access to free flow of information across the region and for defending and expanding press freedom and engaging the main stakeholders in promoting understanding for conflict resolution and regional cooperation through the forum of SAARC.

Mr. Chatterjee reminded the parliamentarians about the poverty of the people in the region and said two fifths of the 1,400 million people were living on less than one dollar a day. He said the region accounted for 40 per cent of the world's poor and was home to 23 per cent of the world's population.

He pointed out the formidable challenges to the leadership in the region, on issues like illiteracy, sanitation and health care, non-accessibility to safe drinking water, trafficking of women and children, environmental degradation that are endemic in the region.