DHAKA: Foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali said Bangladesh, as a founding member, is deeply committed to BIMSTEC.

‘Our firm commitment to the BIMSTEC process was further demonstrated when the Member States of BIMSTEC decided that the organization’s secretariat would be established in Dhaka,’ he added.

The minister said as chief guest in a seminar on ‘Bangladesh and BIMSTEC: Way Forward’ at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) auditorium on Tuesday.

According to the minister, the prime objective under BIMSTEC is to enhance trade and investment. They believe that early realization of the BIMSTEC Free Trade Area (FTA) to promote trade and investment is of critical importance.

However, Bangladesh will host the 6th BIMSTEC Trade and Economic Ministerial Meeting by mid-2015, wherein four important instruments related to BIMSTEC FTA are expected to be signed.

The country is also going to host a Task Force Meeting on Energy in Dhaka in early February 2015, which is expected to finalize the MoU on BIMSTEC Energy and Grid Interconnection.

The minister believed that this MoU will help foster cooperation in the energy sector.

“To sustain the growth, we need to secure stable and affordable energy supply through exploration and utilization of the regional energy resource potentials - which would remain a core priority for BIMSTEC”, he said.

He commented that BIMSTEC acts as a bridge between the two fastest growing regions of the world, while Bangladesh is enjoying the geo-strategic advantage to be situated at the connecting point between South and Southeast Asia.

Another area of cooperation where we stand to gain tremendously is connectivity. This would facilitate trade, investment, tourism and people-to-people contacts among the member states, the minister remarked.

He said “under the aegis of BIMSTEC, we are also cooperating on important areas like poverty alleviation, climate change, agriculture, health, technology, counter-terrorism and transnational crime, cultural cooperation and tourism.”

BDST: 1915 HRS, JAN 13, 2015