SAARC will be free from poverty under Kalam's Vision 2017

New Delhi, Apr 3 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today unveiled his six-point ''Vision for SAARC 2017'' at a meeting he had with leaders from seven South Asian nations, calling for elimination of poverty in the region raising the per capita income by nearly four-fold to 10,000 dollars.

The leaders who had an hour-long meeting at Rashtrapati Bhavan and a photo opportunity in the picturesque Mughal Gardens are Presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka and M A Gayoom of the Maldives, Prime Ministers Girija Prasad Koirala of Nepal, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk of Bhutan and Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan and Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, Fakhruddin Ahmed.

Giving a presentation on his vision, Dr Kalam wanted efforts to reduce infant mortality rate to 10 per thousand from the present 260 per thousand prevalent in some of the SAARC countries.

All the SAARC countries should be free from water-borne diseases and receive affordable, quality healthcare, the President said.

According to his vision, the SAARC countries would have realised the goal of 100 per cent literacy by 2017, from the existing less than 40 per cent in some member nations.

All citizens of SAARC countries would be empowered with quality education, healthcare and employment potential leading to overall enhancement in prosperity and happiness.

The President said there should be a comprehensive and inclusive approach to measure true socio-economic development. He said he had evolved a national prosperity index, taking into account the GDP growth rate, improvement in quality of life of people, particularly those living below the poverty line and the adoption of a value system derived from our civilisation heritage in every walk of life.

A similar model could be evolved to measure the prosperity of SAARC to enable the regional grouping to implement its programmes in an effective manner that would make a difference to the lives of the people, he said.

UNI