India on Thursday highlighted the need for the seven-nation Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) countries to coordinate on issues of maritime transport and examine cooperative mechanisms to exploit marine resources.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh also announced that the members of the group have identified 13 sectors, including trade and investment, transport and communication, energy, agriculture, tourism, public health, counter-terrorism, environment and natural disaster and people-to-people contact.
Speaking about the opportunities for growth and prosperity centred around the Bay of Bengal, Singh pointed out that transport infrastructure and logistics would be the key.
In his opening remarks at the Second Bimstec summit here today, Singh said, “We need to coordinate on issues of maritime transport such as construction of a deep-water port to service the region, inter-modal connectivity, cooperation among our port authorities and our shipping and logistics networks. We should examine cooperative mechanisms to exploit our marine resources.”