BIMSTEC meet to grapple with regional connectivity

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: are all among the focus areas of active ongoing cooperation under the BIMSTEC framework.

“Our ministers and senior officials are due to meet in New Delhi later this week to discuss a whole range of issues. Increased transport linkages which will benefit business, tourism and people-to-people contacts; trade facilitation through a possible FTA; cooperation in the fields of energy; tourism; counter-terrorism and the establishment of a permanent secretariat are among some of the issues that are likely to come up for discussion,” said government officials.

Later this year, New Delhi will also host the second BIMSTEC summit. This would be another important milestone in providing direction to the future work of BIMSTEC as senior political leaders will meet here.

The second BIMSTEC summit, was earlier scheduled for February 2007, but was postponed on Dhaka’s request in view of the volatile political situation prevailing in Bangladesh then.

“The summit was deferred as member states agreed that political instability in Bangladesh and Nepal would be a major impediment to adding an impetus to regional cooperation as desired,” the official said.The second summit of top leaders of the seven nations—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand—will focus on establishing an energy centre for power-grid connectivity among member states for sharing electricity.

According to an RIS study released in July 2008, Bangladesh can earn hefty revenue (over $1 billion per annum) as transit fees from Indian vehicles plying to and from India’s north-eastern region (NER) to the rest of India using Bangladeshi soil using the two corridors. The amount may rise if other corridors between India and Bangladesh are also counted. Similarly, transit arrangement between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan will fetch a hefty royalty to Pakistan for movement of vehicles between India and Afghanistan using Pakistani soil.

Over the past eleven years, BIMSTEC has grown into a viable organisation and played a significant role as a bridge between south-east Asian and south Asian countries. BIMSTEC brings together 1.3 billion people —21 % of the world population, a combined GDP of $750 billion, and a considerable amount of complementarities.