Cabinet okays draft proposal

The cabinet meeting approved on Monday a proposal for amendment to the existing Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT) with India with the provision to include any third country in the protocol.

"The duration of PIWTT was three years. It will be now for five years as per the draft proposal. The duration of protocol will automatically be renewed after every five years," secretary of the Cabinet Division (Reforms and Coordination) M Nazrul Islam told journalists after the meeting.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over it.

Nazrul Islam said the ministry of shipping (MoS) sent the proposal to the cabinet. The amendment has proposed some basic changes in the protocol agreed upon in the secretary-level meeting of the two countries.

The protocol was first signed in 1972 and since then it has been continuing without any interruption. Its tenure expired on March 31, 2015.

The changes include making the duration of the protocol to five years from three years at present and auto-renewal of the protocol subject to no-objection from any party and inclusion of any third country in the protocol.

"Under the amendment a third country could be included in the mutually benefited arrangement for the use of waterways for commerce and transport of goods between two places in one country through the territory of the other. Nepal and Bhutan are the initial targets and the names will be specified later," he said.  

Earlier, secretaries of Bangladesh and India at a meeting in New Delhi on April 20, 2015 initiated the proposal that was reviewed in the inter-ministerial meeting later.

The last amendment to the PIWTT was made in April, 2011 and its duration expired on March 31, 2015.

The council of ministers were also apprised of the two reports on the participation of Bangladesh delegation to the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Japan on March 14-18 and in the Global Conference on Cyberspace held at The Hague in Holland, led by the foreign minister.

talhabinhabib@yahoo.com