CA leaves for New Delhi tomorrow to attend BIMSTEC Summit
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed leaves for New Delhi tomorrow (Wednesday) to attend a summit meeting of the sub-regional cooperation bloc BIMSTEC that provides a bridge between South and Southeast Asia for a shared socio-economic uplift, reports UNB.
The summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will be held Thursday at Hotel Taj Palace in the Indian capital.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are members of the BIMSTEC.
The seven-member group covers 13 priority sectors led by the member-countries in a voluntary manner, namely, trade and investment, technology, energy, transport and communications, tourism, fisheries, agriculture, cultural cooperation, environment and disaster management, public health, people-to-people contact, poverty alleviation, and counter terrorism and trans-national crimes, according to an official.
According to the Bangkok Declaration on the Establishment of BIST-EC, its aims and purposes are to create an enabling environment for rapid economic development, accelerate social progress in the sub-region, promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest, provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities, cooperate more effectively in joint efforts that are supportive of and complementary to national development plans of member-states, maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organisations, and cooperate in projects that can be dealt with most productively on a sub-regional basis and which make best use of available synergies.
The Chief Adviser is scheduled to have a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday, according to an official of the foreign ministry.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and CA's Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim, among others, are members of Bangladesh delegation led by the Chief Adviser.
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 June 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 2003.
In the first Summit on July 31, 2004, leaders of the group agreed that the grouping should be rechristened BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
The Chief Adviser is scheduled to return to Dhaka Friday afternoon after attending the BIMSTEC Summit.
The summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will be held Thursday at Hotel Taj Palace in the Indian capital.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are members of the BIMSTEC.
The seven-member group covers 13 priority sectors led by the member-countries in a voluntary manner, namely, trade and investment, technology, energy, transport and communications, tourism, fisheries, agriculture, cultural cooperation, environment and disaster management, public health, people-to-people contact, poverty alleviation, and counter terrorism and trans-national crimes, according to an official.
According to the Bangkok Declaration on the Establishment of BIST-EC, its aims and purposes are to create an enabling environment for rapid economic development, accelerate social progress in the sub-region, promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest, provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities, cooperate more effectively in joint efforts that are supportive of and complementary to national development plans of member-states, maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organisations, and cooperate in projects that can be dealt with most productively on a sub-regional basis and which make best use of available synergies.
The Chief Adviser is scheduled to have a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday, according to an official of the foreign ministry.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and CA's Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim, among others, are members of Bangladesh delegation led by the Chief Adviser.
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 June 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 2003.
In the first Summit on July 31, 2004, leaders of the group agreed that the grouping should be rechristened BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
The Chief Adviser is scheduled to return to Dhaka Friday afternoon after attending the BIMSTEC Summit.