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Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed said corruption is so predominant in Bangladesh that it is eating up two per cent GDP growth a year, leaving Bangladesh satisfied with a mere five per cent growth.

"We could have achieved a much higher growth had we been able to curb corruption in the country. It is so predominant that it is taking its toll on country's economic progress," the law minister told a follow-up seminar on SAARC Social Charter in a city hotel Sunday.

The minister said cohesion within the government is essen­tial and accountability a must if the government has to wipe out corruption and other social evils from the country.

"Accountability comes from the parliament. Unfortunately, here in Bangladesh we don't have an effective parliament to ensure that. Cooperation of the opposition and bipartisanship are also essential to achieve higher goals for the people," Moudud pointed out.

The South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS) organised the seminar on the SAARC Social Charter (SSC) adopted in the recent SAARC Summit in Islamabad.

Grameen Bank chief Prof Mohammad Younus presided over the first session while SACEPS Executive Director and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan chaired the second session.

Moudud, who confessed that he did not know about adoption of such a social charter in the SAARC Summit, said the government would form a national coor­dination committee and devise a national plan of action to implement the Charter in the country.

Welcoming the adoption of the charter by the SAARC leaders, Moudud stressed that what was needed most was political commitment by the SAARC leader-ship so that the basics of the charter could be implemented in all nations.

The SAARC Social charter should have been adopted much earlier, Moudud said, adding that in its signing the South Asian people achieved something very important and it would pave the way for resolution of much of the conflicts now dogging the region.

Former ministers Shah AMS Kibria and ASHK Sadeq, Prof Rounoq Jahan, former Indian diplomat Muchkund Dubey, foreign affairs adviser to Prime Min­ister Rezaul Karim and Chief, Socio-Economic Governance and Management, Branch of UN­DESA Adil Khan, among others, participated in the discussion.

Former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria said the whole idea of SAARC Social Charter (SSC) would remain vague unless the countries in the region initiated meaningful cooperation.

Substance of cooperation has not taken place in the region, he noted, pointing out that there has to be some gives and takes between the neighbours if the SAARC is to emerge as a meaningful association.

Likening the woes of the South Asian minorities to that of the Holocaust, the minister said in South Asia millions have been killed, persecuted and displaced in the name of religion.