The 16th SAARC Summit has begun in Thimphu, Bhutan with the inaugural address by the Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Thinley. Addressing the 16th SAARC Summit in Thimpu Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh made a strong pitch for regional cooperation and development. He said the 21st Century cannot be an Asian Century unless South Asia marches together. He said, despite individual cooperation by members in various international fora, the people of South Asia together don’t have the voice they should and could have in the global polity. Dr Singh said, though the grouping has created institutions for regional cooperation, they have not been empowered adequately to make them more pro-active. He said, regional cooperation should enable freer movement of people, goods, services and ideas and help the member states to rediscover the shared heritage and build common future. Dr Singh cautioned that unless the SAARC influences the global discourse on issues of concern, it runs the risk of marginalization and stagnation.<br/>Referring to the half-way progress made on regional cooperation, regional development and regional integration, Prime Minister said, at the 25th anniversary Summit, the SAARC countries should renew the compact to build a region that is better connected, better empowered, better fed and better educated. Dr Singh lamented that though the Intra-regional trade, transport and telecommunication links have expanded, but the share of trade and investment flows in total volume in South Asia is far below than that of East and South-East Asia.<br/>