SEZ policy has come to stay: PM

 Ahead of next month's SAARC Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India desired to see its neighbours feel secure and confident that in New Delhi "they have a well-wisher."

"We see their prosperity as a guarantee of ours. We see their progress as reinforcing ours. And so must they," he said.

Singh said the destiny of the people of South Asia is interlinked and inter-dependent. "Our region must and can move forward through such a co-operative engagement. We must make better use of the opportunities the world offers us. We must be more open to our own neighbourhood," he said.

 The Prime Minister told the conclave that he believed Indians have always been open to global influences and "ours will always be an open society. Even in the economic sphere, we are as open today as any free market democracy in the world. For centuries, our forefathers sailed westwards and eastwards - as teachers and traders, as merchants and monks. That is how we should once again approach the world."