DHAKA: State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, MP affirmed that the BIMSTEC Permanent Secretariat will start functioning in Dhaka in May 2014 following signing of the Memorandum of Association (MOA) on the establishment of the BIMSTEC Secretariat.
The MOA is to be signed by all the Member States at the 3rd BIMSTEC Summit tomorrow. Shahriar Alam led the Bangladesh delegation at the 14th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, the capital of Myanmar, on Monday, said a press release.
The BIMSTEC Ministerial level meeting was attended by all the seven BIMSTEC Member States. The meeting took place prior to the 3rd BIMSTEC Summit which will take place tomorrow in Nay Pyi Taw. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lead Bangladesh delegation in the Summit.
The Bangladesh State Minister welcomed Ambassador Sumith Nakandala, the first Secretary General of BIMSTEC from Sri Lanka, to take up his new assignment in Dhaka shortly.
The State Minister urged the Member States to further widen and deepen collective engagements in BIMSTEC, especially in the sectors of Trade & Investment, Energy, Climate Change, Transport and Communication, Poverty Alleviation and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes and so on.
All the Foreign Ministers deeply appreciated and thanked Bangladesh for its pro-active measures in early operationalising the BIMSTEC Secretariat. The Meeting also approved the report of the Senior Officials’ Meeting which was held on 1 March at the level of Foreign Secretary of the BIMSTEC Member States.
It also finalized the text of the 3rd BIMSTEC Summit Declaration which will be adopted by the Heads of State/Government of the BIMSTEC Member States tomorrow. Three instruments will be signed during the 3rd BIMSTEC Summit: MOA on the establishment of the BIMSTEC Permanent Secretariat to be set up in Bangladesh, MOA on the establishment of the BIMSTEC Centre for Weather and Climate to be set up in India and MOU on the establishment of the BIMSTEC Cultural Industries Commission (BCIO) and BIMSTEC Cultural Industries Observatory (BCIO) to be set up in Bhutan.
The BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) is a regional grouping of seven members from South Asia and South East Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Established in 1997, BIMSTEC held its first and second Summits in 2004 and 2008 in Bangkok and New Delhi, respectively.
BDST: 2050 HRS, MAR 03, 2014
