BBIN will be game changer: Bangladeshi minister

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Tuesday said that the newly formed Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) sub-regional coordinative architecture will be a game changer for the South Asian region.

Speaking at the inauguration of the three-day Raisina Dialogue here, a global conclave on geo-politics and geo-economics, Ali said that Bangladesh, because of its geo-strategic location, was indispensable when it came to a south Asian connectivity architecture.

"In this connection, the BBIN will be a game changer," he said.

Last year the four south Asian countries signed the BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement allowing free movement of traffic between these countries.

Ali said that Bangladesh's vision was to become a middle income country by 2021.

"Water resources management and blue economy provide tremendous opportunity for the growth of regional economy," he said, adding that South Asia's engine of growth cannot be allowed to be stopped by the scourge of terrorism.

"Today's world is a world of speed, it is a digitised world. New ideas are overwhelming conventional ones," he said.

"But South Asia is perhaps the least connected region in the world," he said.

The Bangladeshi foreign minister said that it was connectivity that would help the south Asian nations realise their dreams of prosperity.

With the theme of "Connecting Asia" this year, the flagship conference called Raisina Dialogue 2016, organised by the external affairs ministry and the Observer Research Foundation, is designed to explore and examine the prospects and opportunities for Asian integration as well as Asia's integration with the larger world.

Over 450 participants from around 40 countries are participating in this year's conference.