Dhiyana Saeed as the new SAARC Secretary General

Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed has assumed her duties as the tenth Secretary General of SAARC yesterday. She has entered into history as the first lady Secretary General of SAARC. Her nomination by the Government of Maldives for the top post in SAARC Secretariat was endorsed by the recently held SAARC Council of Ministers Meeting in Thimphu, Bhutan on 8 February 2011.

Saeed will serve as the head of the Secretariat of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation based in Kathmandu, Nepal for a three year term. She is the second Maldivian to take up the post of Secretary General of SAARC, on rotational basis among Member States, after Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, who served the Secretariat from January 1992 –December 1993.

The Government of Maldives has announced hosting of the Seventeenth SAARC Summit in Maldives from 10-11 November this year. Preparations are underway in the South Province of Maldives to welcome the Heads of State/Governments of all SAARC Member States in the biggest such event in South Asia. After the Summit Maldives will become the Chair of SAARC till the next Summit. During this period Maldives would host number of important SAARC events with the support of the Maldivian Secretary General. She would be shortly visiting Maldives as part of her introductory calls on the Leaders of the region.

The SAARC Secretariat was established in 1986 after signing of SAARC Charter in 1985 by all the Heads of State/Government of seven Member States of SAARC – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan joined as the eighth Member of SAARC in 2007. SAARC works for strengthening regional cooperation in South Asia, focusing on creation of a South Asian Economic Union as part of its vision, in addition to achieving progress in socio-economic and cultural development and peace and security in the region among others.