BIMSTEC

Background On June 6, 1997, a new sub-regional grouping came into existence in Bangkok and was given the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar attended the inaugural June Meeting as an observer and joined the organisation as a full member at a Special Ministerial Meeting held in Bangkok on December 22, 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMSTEC. Nepal and Bhutan were given full membership in 2003. In the first Summit on July 31, 2004, leaders of the group agreed that the name of the grouping be known as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. Aims and Purposes According to the Bangkok Declaration on the establishment of BIST-EC, the aims and purposes of BIST-EC/BIMST-EC are to create an enabling environment for rapid economic development, accelerate social progress in the sub-region, promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest, provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities, cooperate more effectively in joint efforts that are supportive of, and complementary to national development plans of member states, maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organisation, and cooperate in projects that can be dealt with most productively on a sub-regional basis and which make best use of available synergies. BIMSTEC was initiated with the goal to combine the 'Look West' policy of Thailand and the ASEAN with the 'Look East' policy of India and South Asia. So it could be explained that BIMSTEC is a link between the ASEAN and the SAARC. Seven members of the BIMSTEC cover 13 Priority Sectors led by member countries in a voluntary manner; namely, Trade Investment, Technology, Energy, Transport and Communication, Tourism, Fisheries, Agriculture, Cultural Cooperation, Environment and Disaster Management, Public Health, People-to-People contacts, Poverty Alleviation and Counter-Terrorism and Transnational crimes. An Organisation with a Difference What makes BIMSTEC different from other organisations would be that the BIMSTEC represents one of the most diverse regions of the world, be it, way of life, religion, language, culture, etc. BIMSTEC clearly separates issues of development into 13 priority sectors referred to above besides focusing only on economic cooperation. BIMSTEC provides a unique link between South Asia and South-East Asia bringing together 1•3 billion people—21 per cent of the world population, a combined GDP of US $ 750 billion, and a considerable amount of complementarities. So far BIMSTEC has been working on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and is looking forward to finalise the agreement soon. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has become BIMSTEC's development partner, since 2005, to undertake a study which is designed to help promote and improve transport infrastructure and logistics among the BIMSTEC countries. Chairmanship BIMSTEC uses the alphabetical order for the Chairmanship. The Chairmanship of BIMSTEC has been taken in rotation commencing with Bangladesh (1997-1999), India (2000) Myanmar (2001-2002), Sri Lanka (2002-2003), Thailand (2003-2005), Bangladesh (2005-2006). Bhutan asked for a skip. So it has turned to India (2006-08).The 11th Ministerial Meeting was hosted in India on November 12, 2008.In 2009, Myanmar will host the 12th Ministerial Meeting and assume the BIMSTEC