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BIMSTEC ministerial meet expected to endorse free trade agreement
Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat arrived in the Indian capital August 8, to participate in the 9th BIMSTEC ministerial conference which, among other things, is expected to finalize the date for the enforcement of a free trade agreement between the seven member states of South and South East Asia, according to an official report.
Kaladan
Press
http://www.bnionline.net
Wednesday, 09 August 2006
Dhaka,
Bangladesh: Finance Minister
Ram Sharan Mahat arrived in the Indian capital August 8, to participate in the
9th BIMSTEC ministerial conference which, among other things, is expected to
finalize the date for the enforcement of a free trade agreement between the
seven member states of South and South East Asia,
according to an official report.
Also Tuesday, hectic negotiations were underway between the senior officials of
the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sector Technical and Economic
Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries - India,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma,
Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. At the 11th BIMSTEC
Senior Trade and Economic Officials meeting, they were finalizing agenda and
report to be discussed during Wednesday's ministerial conference. Nepali
officials participating in the preparatory meeting included Officiating Foreign
Secretary Bhagirath Basnet, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce
Nagaindra Upadhyay, and Joint Secretary at the Finance Ministry Ram Kumar
Shrestha.
BIMSTEC was supposed to the set an earlier deadline for enforcement of the free trade area, but that couldn't happen because the joint Trade Negotiation Committee failed to finalize the agreement framework within the stipulated time.
Besides fixing a new date for the implementation of BIMSTEC, the inter-regional trade bloc's conference on Wednesday is expected to make several important decisions to promote cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, technology, transportation and communication, energy, tourism and fisheries, officials said. Also the meeting will set the stage for the Second BIMSTEC Summit, which is scheduled to be held in India early next year.
Set up in June 1997 to foster socio-economic cooperation between Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma, BIMSTEC admitted Bhutan and Nepal in 2004. The inter-regional bloc seeks to promote cooperation between the five SAARC countries and two Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) members.