Senior BIMSTEC officials to meet in city next month
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Naim-Ul-Karim
Senior officials of the BIMSTEC will meet in Dhaka next month to discuss the organizational structure and financing mechanism to establish the sub-regional group's permanent headquarters and select a host country, sources said Monday.
They said three countries--Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand-had expressed their interest to be the host for BIMSTE' s headquarters cum permanent secretariat.
"After Thailand withdrew its proposal recently, Sri Lanka is now the only contender of Bangladesh to be the host country," a senior official of the ministry of foreign affairs told the FE Monday.
Bangladesh expressed its interest to be host country of permanent secretariat of BIMSTEC at its 10th ministerial meeting held in New Delhi, India on August 29.
The official said foreign adviser Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury unveiled Bangladesh's interest at the New Delhi meeting of the seven nations sub-regional group.
On 6 June 1997, a sub-regional group was formed in Bangkok and given the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation) to connect South Asian and Southeast Asian countries for bolstering trade, commerce and investment to upgrade the status of more than 1.3 billion people of the countries.
Myanmar joined the organization as a full member at a special ministerial meeting held in Bangkok on 22 December 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMST-EC.
The official said the BIMSTEC working group on 'Establishment of Permanent Secretariat', which is scheduled to meet in Dhaka in mid October, will discuss key elements of the permanent secretariat including rationale and scope, organizational structure, location and physical facilities, financial contribution formula and timeline.
It will also evaluate the progress of the 13 sectors of cooperation in preparation of the 2nd BIMSTEC Summit scheduled to be held in November 11-12 this year in New Delhi, he said.
BIMSTEC covers 13 sectors and these include, Trade & Investment, Technology, Energy, Transport & Communication, Tourism, Fisheries, Agriculture, Cultural Co-operation, Environment and Disaster Management, Public Health, People-to-People Contact, Poverty Alleviation, Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes.
The official said the decision of the working group on selecting the host country will be finalised at the upcoming second summit of the regional group.
The official said: "We are expecting that member countries other than Sri Lanka will choose Bangladesh as host country of permanent secretariat as there is stability in the country."
"If we are selected we will require to provide land for construction of the permanent headquarters. Getting a chance to be host country for accommodating the permanent secretariat of BIMSTEC will benefit Bangladesh in many way," he added.
Senior officials of the BIMSTEC will meet in Dhaka next month to discuss the organizational structure and financing mechanism to establish the sub-regional group's permanent headquarters and select a host country, sources said Monday.
They said three countries--Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand-had expressed their interest to be the host for BIMSTE' s headquarters cum permanent secretariat.
"After Thailand withdrew its proposal recently, Sri Lanka is now the only contender of Bangladesh to be the host country," a senior official of the ministry of foreign affairs told the FE Monday.
Bangladesh expressed its interest to be host country of permanent secretariat of BIMSTEC at its 10th ministerial meeting held in New Delhi, India on August 29.
The official said foreign adviser Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury unveiled Bangladesh's interest at the New Delhi meeting of the seven nations sub-regional group.
On 6 June 1997, a sub-regional group was formed in Bangkok and given the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation) to connect South Asian and Southeast Asian countries for bolstering trade, commerce and investment to upgrade the status of more than 1.3 billion people of the countries.
Myanmar joined the organization as a full member at a special ministerial meeting held in Bangkok on 22 December 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMST-EC.
The official said the BIMSTEC working group on 'Establishment of Permanent Secretariat', which is scheduled to meet in Dhaka in mid October, will discuss key elements of the permanent secretariat including rationale and scope, organizational structure, location and physical facilities, financial contribution formula and timeline.
It will also evaluate the progress of the 13 sectors of cooperation in preparation of the 2nd BIMSTEC Summit scheduled to be held in November 11-12 this year in New Delhi, he said.
BIMSTEC covers 13 sectors and these include, Trade & Investment, Technology, Energy, Transport & Communication, Tourism, Fisheries, Agriculture, Cultural Co-operation, Environment and Disaster Management, Public Health, People-to-People Contact, Poverty Alleviation, Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes.
The official said the decision of the working group on selecting the host country will be finalised at the upcoming second summit of the regional group.
The official said: "We are expecting that member countries other than Sri Lanka will choose Bangladesh as host country of permanent secretariat as there is stability in the country."
"If we are selected we will require to provide land for construction of the permanent headquarters. Getting a chance to be host country for accommodating the permanent secretariat of BIMSTEC will benefit Bangladesh in many way," he added.