PRIME MINISTER INAUGURATES THIRD
SAARC INFORMATION MINISTERS' CONFERENCE
The Prime Minister
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the Third SAARC Information
Ministers’ Conference here today. Union Information & broadcasting
Minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Secretary General, SAARC Shri
Q.A.M.A. Rahim were also present along with Information Ministers
and other dignitaries from SAARC countries.
Following is
the full text of the speech by the PM on the occasion.:
"It is a
great pleasure to be here with you. As our Information & Broadcasting
Minister has just said, I have somewhat delayed my departure for
my tour abroad to share some thoughts with you on this important
occasion.
Meetings of SAARC
forums are welcome opportunities for exchange of views and perspectives
among various strata of our societies, contributing to greater
mutual awareness and better understanding. A Conference of Information
Ministers is particularly valuable, since they frame our national
policies on dissemination of news, views and perceptions through
our mass media.
I have recently
returned from an India-ASEAN Summit meeting in Bali, where we
took many momentous decisions about closer integration between
India and ASEAN. We concluded a framework agreement on comprehensive
economic cooperation – including free trade – barely a year after
commencement of negotiations. We advanced towards an open skies
policy for passenger traffic and for cargo services. We also discussed
some significant sub-regional cooperation initiatives for BIMSTEC
and the Mekong Ganga Initiative. Later this month, we will host
an India-European Union Summit in Delhi, where similarly many
new proposals for economic cooperation are on the anvil. In Moscow
this week, I will also be discussing the multi-modal North-South
transport corridor linking India, Iran and Central Asia with Russia.
I am mentioning
all this, because such experiences in regional and sub-regional
cooperation hold a lesson for SAARC.
Since its inception
in 1985, SAARC has been struggling to emerge from the concept
to the practical reality of close regional cooperation. The concept
is to harness our abundant natural resources, our talented human
energies and our industrial synergies to accelerate growth and
development in our countries. We are yet to achieve this.
Post Cold War alignments
and the technology revolution, have set in motion trends which
we can ignore only at our peril. ASEAN is, of course, an old example
of the triumph of economic organization over political differences.
We can also see how post Cold War Europe has forgotten its former
political divisions and accepted differential economic development,
while expanding the European Union. Innovative regional and sub-regional
arrangements are being launched in Africa, Latin America and the
Caribbean region – including countries, which have a history of
bitter hostility towards each other.
This is a dominant
trend in today’s globalising world. It is time that we recognize
what it means for all of us in South Asia. If SAARC cannot organize
itself, it will simply miss the boat. Other alignments will develop,
to seize the economic opportunities offered by closer integration.
We cannot forever be challenging logic and mocking economics.
I would like
to take this opportunity to re-affirm that India is fully committed
to the effort to build on our commonalities and shared aspirations
for equitable development. I often hear the argument that our
unequal physical sizes and economic strengths inhibit equal cooperation.
I believe these very factors can be turned to mutual economic
advantage by creating inter-linkages, which can enhance confidence
and trust. The collective size of our markets creates economies
of scale with obvious impact on costs of production and competitiveness.
We invite all our
SAARC neighbours to participate in India’s economy, rather than
be apprehensive about it. We have repeatedly expressed our willingness
to enter into preferential trading arrangements and free trade
agreements within the SAARC framework. We are equally willing
to do so with SAARC countries individually. With Nepal and Bhutan,
we have had such special trading arrangements for decades. With
Sri Lanka, we have gone a considerable distance down that road.
We are making a beginning with Bangladesh also. As I said at the
Kathmandu SAARC Summit, we are also willing to have special and
differential treatment for the least developed SAARC countries.
All this has
immediate relevance to Information Ministers, since the media
today plays a crucial role in moulding opinions and shaping public
attitudes. Technology changes have today led to an explosive expansion
in media platforms – including newspapers and magazines, TV channels
and radio stations, and the Internet. The mass media can no longer
remain the monopoly of governments. Private initiative has permeated
every sphere of media activity. There is a surge in the flow of
information, education, entertainment and culture among the peoples
of the world. At the same time, it has become economically viable
to develop platforms for dissemination of programmes of special
interest to specific communities.
This revolution
in communications presents great opportunities to SAARC countries.
We need to use the technologies, rather than try to suppress them.
We should try to ensure that our populations have free access
to all the media platforms in our region, so that they remain
completely up-to-date, not only about major political events,
but also economic, cultural and sociological trends in all our
countries. In this way, the media can be a powerful force for
information rather than propaganda, for education rather than
prejudice, for awareness rather than misinformation. We can carry
regular SAARC news programmes on national TV and radio channels.
We should properly publicise and project SAARC activities within
and outside the region. Information on developmental programmes
and cultural events in individual SAARC countries should be aired
in all the other countries of the region. This free flow of information,
news, views and perspectives can do more for regional cooperation
than any political exhortation. Since we are committed to SAARC,
let us try this method.
For this Information
Ministers’ Conference, you have a rich agenda. It includes the
evolution of a SAARC-recognised Regional Media Forum, annual conferences
of editors from SAARC countries, training facilities for media
persons and a SAARC Media Development Fund. I hope you will also
consider constructively India’s suggested guidelines on Trans-national
Satellite Broadcasting in our region. I hope you will approach
this agenda with the objective of genuinely strengthening all-round
regional cooperation in information and media. To show India’s
commitment to this process, we would be willing to offer - under
our technical and economic assistance programme – 12 seats to
SAARC countries in training institutions for various media disciplines.
I will conclude
by extending my best wishes for your discussions at this Conference.
Your deliberations should open new windows of cooperation. There
is an overwhelming desire for friendship and cooperation at the
level of the people of our region. We, as politicians, should
respond to this demand."
