Speaking in the meeting, Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said that the meeting may be a platform to devise common concept in the field of tourism promotion, food security and international area. 

He said that apart from issues on capital flow in the SAARC and inter-country investment, the implementation of the decisions made in the Sixth SAARC Finance Ministers Meeting concluded in Colombo in Sri Lanka in August, 2013 would be discussed in this meeting. Likewise, investment promotion and its security would also be discussed, he said. 

Mahat said SAARC is on its way towards economic growth and transformation. 

He informed that Nepal's economy is moving towards rapid growth after the April 25 earthquake and that the power trade agreements with India and other multi-national companies has been struck. 

He expressed the belief that the meeting would help prepare a proper mechanism to deal with poverty and natural disasters in the SAARC. Saying that economic and financial cooperation would help strengthen the unification of the region, he stressed on the need to establish relations with each country, promote inter-country investment and remove the non-tariff barriers with goodwill among the SAARC member countries. 

Arjun Bahadur Thapa, SAARC Secretary General, pointed out the need to create an environment for smooth flow of goods and products within the region through road or rail networks. He stressed the need to move towards a strong socio-economic development through the South Asian Economic Union. 

Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister of Pakistan; Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Finance Minister of Bangladesh; Mohamed Zuhair, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of the Maldives; and Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, India also attended the meeting. RSS