SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tuesday, making a strong pitch for SAARC nations to jointly combatcoronavirus, proposed setting up a COVID-19 emergency fund to deal with thepandemic effectively. Talking to a high profile delegation led by MianFaizBukhshArainhere, SAARC Chambers chief Iftikhar Malik said Maldives, Nepal, BhutanSri Lanka and Afghanistan should contribute US$ 2 million andPakistan,India,Bangladesh US$ 5 million each in this proposed coronavirus fundand this is important for South Asian countries to focus on collaboration, notconfusion, and preparation, not panic. He said this could be based onvoluntary contributions from all. “Looking ahead, we could create acommon research platform, to coordinate research on controlling epidemicdiseases within our South Asian region,” he said, adding that “we share commonregional concerns on COVID-19.”