A regional meeting of officials from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries kicked off in Kathmandu on Monday to discuss the modalities to set up the SAARC Development Fund (SDF).

Addressing the meeting, Md. Sufiur Rahman, director at the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu, said the 13th SAARC summit held in Dhaka had entrusted the Finance Ministers to make recommendations on the operational modalities of SDF.

“However, understanding of a truly regional fund, its mobilization, operational modalities etc. have not been very clear, as SAARC member states have limited experience in capacity to handle big projects,” said Rahman.

According to officials, the workshop—funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB)– will focus on thematic aspects of creating a regional fund as well as legal and governance matters specific to operatioanlisation of the SDF.

The three windows of SDF include social window, financial window and infrastructure window.

Addressing the programme, country director of the ADB in Nepal Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman said SDF was a major milestone for SAARC. He said ADB was happy to be able to support such an initiative.

Established as SAARC Development Fund (SADF) in 1995 as the mechanism for funding regional projects, it was later advised that the Fund be reconstituted into a new entity, SDF, to undertake all development funding by SAARC.

Officials from the SAARC member countries are taking part in the three-day workshop.