Shri Rajiv Pratap
Rudy, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, is leading
the Indian delegation to attend the 4th BIMST-EC
(Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation)
Trade/Economic Ministerial Meeting, which is being held on 7th
March in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Shri Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce
Secretary, will participate in a meeting of senior trade/economic
officials of the participating member countries, which is being
held today. The last meeting of the BIMST-EC Trade/Economic
Ministers was held in Yangon, Myanmar.
The meeting is
expected to discuss the report of the 3rd BIMST-EC
meeting as also reports of the Business Forum and the Economic
Forum. It is also expected to discuss the establishment of BIMST-EC
Free Trade Area. Along with this the progress reports of the
Sub-sectors under the Trade and Investment Sector and the trade
facilitation measures such as formation of BIMST-EC Customs
Expert Group, Banking Arrangement and the consideration of the
future work programme will be discussed.
BIMST-EC represents
an attempt to explore and develop synergies based on the land
and maritime contiguity of member states. BIMST-EC offers attractive
possibilities of sub-regional economic cooperation, especially
in the areas of trade and investment, and the transport and
communications infrastructure. BIMST-EC forum arose from a joint
initiative by India, Sri Lanka and Thailand in 1996-97. Later,
the grouping was joined by Bangladesh and Myanmar. BIMST-EC
formally came into being at its 1st Ministerial in
December 1997 in Bangkok. BIMST-EC functional cooperation has
6 primary sectors: Science & Technology, Trade & Investment,
Transport & Communications, Energy, Fisheries and Tourism.
A major focus area in Trade & Investment is the proposal
to develop a BIMST-EC Free Trade Area.
