The multi-sectoral sub-regional grouping needs a big push to meet its original goals of facilitating cross-border trade and connectivity, foreign affairs experts said Tuesday.
The experts, however, voiced their dismay over the low-visibility of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in the regional trade landscape.
The views came at an international conference on 'BIMSTEC at its 20: Towards a Bay of Bengal Community' held at the BIMSTEC secretariat in Dhaka.
If the potentials of this sub-region could be harnessed, it will help accelerate the economic growth of the member countries, they said. The BIMSTEC houses 1.7 billion people or one-fifth of the global population.
Founded in June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration, the BIMSTEC is a regional organisation comprising seven member states lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.
Among its seven member states, five come from South Asia such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar and Thailand from Southeast Asia.
Foreign minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, ambassador of Nepal Chop Lal Bhusal, representative of Indian foreign minister Piyush Srivsatava, and secretary-general of the BIMSTEC M Shahidul Islam addressed the inaugural session of the seminar.
In his speech, the foreign minister said that the loss of benefits for four BIMSTEC member countries including Bangladesh and Myanmar resulting from their graduation from the LDC status could be offset through enhancing trade within member countries.
Noting that the platform has failed to make any "visible progress" in the last two decades, he said the member countries should gear up their efforts to make this platform more effective and dynamic.
He said that though BIMSTEC envisages raising intra-regional trade to 21 per cent, it is only 7.0 per cent now.
The minister said the BIMSTEC, which bridges the South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, has a common space in promoting development and security but "much remains to be done as the potentials remains unexploited."
Nepal's ambassador said the BIMSTEC had not yet made any visible progress in advancing the concrete cooperation among the member countries.
He said immediate measures were required to boost cross-border movement of cargoes, trade and energy cooperation in the region.
Representative of Indian foreign minister Piyush Srivastava said India gave BIMSTEC "huge importance" as it can contribute to the economic development of his country, especially its North-eastern states.
He expressed the hope that member countries would gear up their efforts to improve regional transport connectivity aimed at jacking up regional trade.
M Shahidul Islam said as the BIMSTEC process entered the third-decade of its existence, it is "high time we charted out the future course of the organisation".
Initially, the economic bloc was formed with four member states with the acronym 'BIST-EC' (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
Following the inclusion of Myanmar on December 22, 1997 during a special Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the group was renamed 'BIMST-EC' (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
With the entry of Nepal and Bhutan to the sixth Ministerial Meeting in February 2004, the name of the grouping was changed to the BIMSTEC.
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