Minister eyes 4 deals at Bimstec summit

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali today voiced hopes on striking four important deals in the coming Bimstec meeting to step up trade and investment among member states.

“We believe early realisation of the Bimstec Free Trade Agreement (Bimstec FTA) to promote trade and investment is of crucial importance,” he told a seminar in Dhaka.

He said that Bangladesh would host the 6th Bimstec Trade and Economic Ministerial meeting by mid-2015, where he hoped for the signing of four related important instruments.

He was addressing the inaugural session of a seminar ‘Bangladesh and Bimstec: Way Forward’ arranged by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS).

Bimstec Secretary General Sumith Nakandala and BIISS Director General AKM Abdur Rahman spoke at the session as the chief guest with BIISS Board of Governors’ Chairman Ambassador Munshi Faiz Ahmad in the chair.

Bimstec, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, is a forum aimed towards beneficial cooperation among member South Asian countries.

Besides Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand are the member states of the Bimstec.

Foreign Minister Ali said Bangladesh wants to see negotiations on investment and services become fast-traced to run parallel to the negotiations on trade in goods.

He said the Bimstec members were showing impressive trend of economic growth.

“To sustain the growth, we need to secure stable and affordable energy supply through exploration and utilization of the regional energy resources potentials which will remain a core priority for the Bimstec,” he added.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh will host a taskforce meeting on energy in early February this year which is expected to finalize the MoU on Bimstec energy and grid interconnection. “We believe this MoU will help foster cooperation in the energy sector.”

Speaking at the seminar, Bimstec Secretary General Sumith Nakandala said 2015 “is extremely important for the Bimstec” and hoped that the agreement can be inked looking past the reason behind its delay.

He said there was no lack of political commitment for making the Bimstec a success and he saw the highest standard of commitment in this regard from member states.

He said the member states need a kind of leadership which will take forward the Bimstec to reach its goal by learning from the failures. “Bangladesh is in right place to take the lead role.”