During the SAZARC Business Session, the following Committees reported : Transportation Guidelines for Zoos, Chair Abdur Razzaque (Bangladesh); Wild Animal Stock Position of SAZARC Zoos, Chair, Mansoor Qazi (Pakistan); Nutrition, Jayanthi Alahakoon (Sri Lanka), Aquarium Report, Renuka Munasinge Bandaranayake (Sri Lanka); Conservation Committee, Sally Walker (India); Two reports Training and Wildlife and Trade Committee by Dr. Sahu (India).  Some other reports, such as Reintroduction, Release, Translocation, S.K. Sinha (India); Veterinary medicine, Ganeshkumar Dubey (India) were submitted by post or fax and will be included in the final amalgamated Report.  Committee Chairs were encouraged to start early, try and collect information from every country and present their reports. 
 
Three new committees have been described in the Resolutions, e.g. Guidelines for Crisis Management in the Zoo, Chaired by, Manoj Mahapatra; Membership Committee; and ISIS / Records Committee, R. K. Sahu as President, SAZARC.     
 
The Conference thanked Ms Uzma Khan, Pakistan, for her work as Chair of the Education and Welfare Committee her leaving the Lahore Zoo and being given additional duties at WWF Pakistan.  The Conference participants confirmed Ms. Bushra Khan, Education Officer, Lahore Zoo as Chair of the Education Committee. 
 
It has been suggested by President and Director, that the Education and Welfare Committee be split into two committees, Education being separate with a Committee on Ethics and Welfare in keeping with the WAZA model.   The Education Committee will be chaired by Bushra Khan who will record and coordinate the education reports from each country (representatives for the following countries offered from the floor) were Mr. Kande Nihasl Senarath De Silva, Sri Lanka assisted by Renuka  Bandaranayake;  Rachana Shah, Nepal; Sayed Ali Ahasan and Zahed Md. Malekur Co-representing Bangladesh; undecided (India) and Mohammed Fazil, Afghanistan.   The Ethics and Welfare Committee will be Co-chaired by President and Director, SAZARC, who will request a representative from each country to be suggested by their respective zoo community. 
 
Director, SAZARC presented the Report of the Administrative Office for the year.  Activities were summarized and the financial position was reported.  Director reported that when SAZARC was given membership in the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, it was felt that elegant solution to the currency and some other problems of some South Asian countries could be looked after for sometime by Zoo Outreach Organisation serving as SAZARC Administrative Office cum Secretariat, since Zoo Outreach Organisation was also a member of WAZA.   SAZARC Director reported that since ZOO supports many other networks and associations at their office, and since all of these networks and associations have some relation to zoos, that it had been possible to justify absorbing the cost of running SAZARC throughout the year with funds being raised only for the Annual Conference and sometimes for the President to attend WAZA.  The funds raised for the Annual Conference pay for the air fare and accommodation of participants whose zoo or government cannot or will not support their attendance.  Therefore, any funds raised in the name of SAZARC are used directly for participants and not to support the SAZARC office or pay any salaries.   The activities of the year 2005 will be described in detail in the Report of the current SAZARC Conference.
 
The venue for the 2006 Annual Meeting was discussed.  It is the tradition of SAZARC to attempt to get around to all the countries before conducting a meeting in a country for the second time.  This year it was hoped that the senior officials of the Kabul Zoo could attend SAZARC and offer Kabul, Afghanistan as a potential venue but this did not materialize.  Likewise, it was hoped that the yet to be represented country of Bhutan would send an official who could investigate the possibility of Bhutan hosting the meeting, but this also did not materialize.  Director, SAZARC, reported that there had been an invitation from the South East Asian Zoo Association (SEAZA) for SAZARC to attend their Annual Meeting which will take place in Saigon, Vietnam, 11-13 September 2006 and will include a training in Zoo Marketing.  It was suggested by the Director and supported by the President and others that a delegation of one or two persons from each country attend this meeting in lieu of a regular meeting of SAZARC.  In addition, a visit to Kabul Zoo, Afghanistan as a SAZARC delegation will be arranged.  As there was not a clear consensus as to this option, a vote was taken which was overwhelmingly for the SEAZA and Kabul Zoo option.  It was generally agreed that unless Afghanistan or Bhutan made a clear offer, the 2007 meeting could take place in Nepal or some other country.
 
Earlier in the meeting, Director, SAZARC had given a Report on the publication in South Asia of the World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy WZACS.  The Central Zoo/KMTNC, Nepal and the NGO Wildlife Action Group WAG were commended for conducting a formal release of the WZACS in their country.  Director explained that it was thought earlier that sufficient funds were available for each country to translate and print the official Summary document of WZACS in their national language, but when the individual countries sent their estimates for translation and printing, they were 2-3 times what had been estimated by the Administrative Office and thus exceeded the budget.  Director suggested that the official WZACS Summary be printed in English with one page summary in the national language of every country along with a one or two page description of the zoos of their country as well as a section on SAZARC.  Thus one document would represent all countries and could be printed in good quantity with the current budget.  It was further stated that if any country wished to translate and print the official summary of WZACS at their own cost, the SAZARC administrative Office would provide full-colour covers and also screen print the title in language of the country artfully on a blank portion of the cover.  After some discussion of modalities this was agreed. 
 
The Conference ended with an informal but enthusiastic Valedictory ceremony mid- afternoon on the fifth day and participants went their separate ways on subsidized tours of zoos of the country.  Submitted by Director, SAZARC.