South Asia Regional Cooperation GDLN Dialogue: "Consultation on South Asian Research, Education and Innovation (SARENI)", took place on March 11, 2008 through Video Conference being organized by the World Bank South Asia Regional Cooperation Program held at BRAC University Video Conference Center. The key speakers were Prof Tissa Vitarana, Minister of Science & Technology, Sri Lanka, Dr. Mohammad Azam Dadfar, Minister of Higher Education, Afghanistan; Professor Att-ur-Rahman, Chairman, Higher Education Commission, Pakistan and Dr Sam Pitroda, Chairman, India's National Knowledge Commission. From BRAC University our Adviser to the Governing Board Dr. Riaz Khan attended the session with the Member of UGC on his side.
This was part of World Bank's regional integration dialogue series aimed at promoting cross-country learning with a focus on cross-border externalities. There are untapped positive synergies at the South Asia regional level in terms of information sharing and competition in ideas between universities, non-university research and teaching entities, libraries, hospitals, and other knowledge institutions. A regional high-bandwidth, high-speed Internet-based network could help spur such benefits, facilitating greater interactions between knowledge workers in areas such as high-energy physics, nanotechnology, and medical research. It also could help in the building and sharing of regional databases, and in addressing regional and especially regional-rural problems, including multi-country initiatives such as flood control, disaster management, climate change, and infectious disease control. Importantly, such an effort could help spark higher and more sustainable regional growth.