Impact lives, Dipu tells IOR-ARC

FE Team | Published: November 16, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Bangalore, Nov 15 (bdnewss24.com)-Bangladesh wants the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation to make a 'clearly-marked' forward journey since it sees the 19-nation grouping 'a vehicle for a qualitative impact on people's lives.' "We are now at the threshold of the 15th anniversary of our association next year. This should allow us for an imaginative discussion on future directions of the association," foreign minister Dipu Moni said in her statement at the 11th meeting of the council of ministers of the IOR-ARC in Bangalore on Tuesday. She said with the population of about two billion, technological abilities, and rich minerals, marines and agricultural resources, the Indian Ocean Rim offers 'enormous' opportunity for the IOR-ARC members 'to enhance trade and investment.' She said the potentials of Indian Ocean Rim are 'immense' and IOR-ARC must serve as active agent of change towards the betterment of people's lives. But, she said, "It is true that we have not been fully successful in harnessing all the benefits that the association could offer." "The test time has passed. But performance has been mixed, depending on how optimistic an observer is." She added that an assessment of past performance indicated that projects needed 'to have an exclusive appeal in order to attract the interest of and have positive impact on the member states.'