Vice President to inaugurate ministerial retreat today

New Delhi, June 24 : Vice President Hamid Ansari will inaugurate a ministerial retreat and a special session of governing council of Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and Pacific (CIRDAP) here today.

The three-day ministerial retreat is being organised by the Rural Development Ministry in collaboration with the CIRDAP. The focus of the retreat will be on creation of sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor.

The member countries will share their collective experience on use of information and communication technology for effective implementation of rural development programmes in their regions.

Working out an action plan to implement rural development policies will also be one of the objectives of the retreat.

The retreat will be attended by Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and the chairman of CIRDAP from Philippines Nasser C Pangandaman.

Rural Development Ministers of Sri Lanka, Philippines, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia are expected to attend the retreat.

Formed in 1979 by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nation, CIRDAP is headquartered in Dhaka and has 14 nations as members apart from India.

ANI