BIMSTEC secretariat to be set up in Dhaka

FE Team | Published: March 26, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report The cabinet Monday approved the Memorandum of Association on establishment of the secretariat of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in the capital. "The secretariat of the BIMSTEC will be established in Dhaka. Bangladesh will bear the maintenance cost of the secretariat for the first five years," Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the media after the regular cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minsiter Sheikh Hasina. He said the first Secretary General (SG) of the BIMSTEC will be a Sri Lankan. Then the responsibitly will be shifted to nationals of other member countries in rotation as per alphabetical order. He said there will be a number of directors to assist the SG for carrying out the office work of the secretariat. "The directors of the BIMSTEC will be recommended by the member countries. They will be appointed by the SG of the BIMSTEC. There will also be other local staff to run the secretariat," the cabinet secretary said. He said the member countries will pay subscription to maintain the cost of running the secretariat office. On June 6, 1997, a new sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok and given the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar attended the inaugural meeting as an observer and joined the organisation as a full member at a special ministerial meeting held in Bangkok on December 22, 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMST-EC. Nepal was granted observer status by the second ministerial meeting in Dhaka in December 1998. Subsequently, full membership was granted to Nepal and Bhutan in 2004. In the first Summit on July 31, 2004, leaders of the group agreed that the name of the grouping should be known as BIMSTEC. BIMSTEC has thirteen priority sectors that cover areas of cooperation in trade and investment, transport and communication, energy, tourism, technology, fisheries, agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism and transnational crimes, environment and natural disaster management, culture and people to people contact. The cabinet did not approve the draft of the Bangladesh National Conservation Strategy initiated by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). It asked the ministry concerned to submit the same again after incorporating all achievements on environment and matters that are very much pertinent with the present time.