The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Development Fund, SDF, has been officially launched at Thimphu by Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley. The SDF, with a paid-up capital of 300 million US dollars will provide financial assistance to projects on women empowerment, maternal and child health and teachers' training. India has contributed 189 million dollars for the fund which would be used for social and some other sectors in the member-countries. Addressing the 16th SAARC Summit on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said that the SAARC Development Fund, the Food Bank, the South Asian Free Trade Agreement and the South Asian University are examples of new institutions that will knit the South Asian region more closely together. Earlier, the External Affairs Minister Mr S.M.Krishna said, over the years, SAARC has made visible strides and achieved many milestones and created the institutional and legal framework for regional cooperation through agreements and programmes covering almost every area of importance to the region, ranging from Poverty Alleviation and Food Security to Terrorism and Women's Empowerment. The permanent secretariat of the SDF will be based in Bhutanese capital Thimphu and serve as a regional funding mechanism. All SAARC leaders hoped for effective utilization of the fund to benefit the people of the region and help alleviate poverty as well.