Indore, Feb 18 (IANS): The two-day South Asian Speakers Summit was inaugurated by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan here in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.

The speakers would discuss achieving sustainable goals, including poverty, development, environment and gender concerns in South Asia, the home to over 25 per cent of the world population.

The summit is being organised jointly by the Indian Parliament and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), a global organisation for multilateral political and legislative discussions.

President of Inter-Parliamentary Union Saber Chowdhury, Speaker of National Assembly of Afghanistan Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, Speaker of Bangladeshi Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Speaker of National Assembly of Bhutan Jigme Zangpo, Speaker of Sri Lankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya, Speaker of Parliament of Maldives Abdulla Maseeh Mohammad, Speaker of Parliament of Nepal Onasari Gharti have been participating in the summit on February 18-19.

Pakistan and Myanmar are not participating in the summit.

Mahajan will on Saturday night host a dinner of guest speakers and parliamentarians at Brilliant convention centre, where cultural programmes highlighting heritage of India will be showcased to delegates.

On Sunday, the summit would release Indore declaration on sustainable development goals.