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Corruption is holding back eco­nomic progress and eating away no less than two percentage points of Bangladesh's GDP growth, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed told a seminar yesterday.

"Whatever resources we have...if we could make the best use of them we could achieve seven percent GDP growth, which is now five per cent," Moudud told a seminar on 'Follow-up of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit deci­sions concerning the SAARC Social Charter'.

The South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS) and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) co-organised the seminar at BRAC Centre audito­rium in Dhaka.

The law minister said a national coordination committee should be established immediately in all SAARC countries to facilitate the imple­mentation of SAARC Social Charter adopted at the SAARC  Summit in Islamabad in January.

"The charter should be debated in all SAARC parliaments to make new laws. The political leadership should have commitment to implement the issues included in the charter," he mentioned.

Despite having tensions and conflicts, South Asia has made considerable progress in the social sector, Moudud said admitting that he was unaware of the adoption of SAARC Social Charter before receiv­ing the invitation from the seminar organisers.

Prof Muhammad Yunus, Managing director of Grameen Bank Limited, chaired the inaugural session.

Earlier, Dr Godfrey Gunatilleke, convenor of SACEPS taskforce on the Citizen's Social Charter, made a pre­sentation on the SAARC Social Charter and drew a comparison with the Citizen's Social Charter.

While both charters have dealt with poverty, women, children, youth, and human resource development, the SAARC charter has dealt with a few other areas namely health, education and drug-de addiction which the citizen's charter does not cover. The citizen's charter on the other hand has dealt with social integration and good governance, areas not addressed by the SAARC charter.

ASHK Sadeque, former education minister, said political leaders do not have the commitment, which is very important to implement the charter.

Prof Muchkund Dubey, former Indian foreign secretary, said the SAARC Social Charter is going to be the main instrument for advocacy at the national level. There are tremendous scopes to increase cooperation in the region, he said stressing the need for ensuring security of minority groups in the region.

Former finance minister SAMS Kibria, speaking as chief guest at the concluding session, said it is very important to pick up specific issues from the social charter.

Referring to the introduction of old age allowances in Bangladesh, he said there may be specific social programmes that can be extended to other countries of the region.

Prof Rehman Sobhan, executive director of SACEPS and CPD chairman, said the civil society in the region has an important role to play for initiating a process of advocacy for the SAARC Social Charter.

As heads of government in South Asia have adopted the document it should be taken to parliament and the opposition political parties can take a position on it in parliament, he noted.

Former diplomat MM Rezaul Karim said it is essential to eliminate tension by reducing the defence budget to ensure better life in South Asia.

Khushi Kabir, coordinator of the Citizen's Social Charter preparation taskforce in Bangladesh, spoke at the inaugural session while Khawar Mumtaz, coordinator in Pakistan, Professor Rounaq Jahan, member of Bangladesh taskforce, and Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, managing director of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation, also spoke at the concluding session.