BIMSTEC officials take stock of preparations ahead of 4th summit in Nepal

Senior officials of BIMSTEC today met and discussed the preparations for the fourth summit of the regional economic bloc to be held here later this month.

The special session, chaired by Nepal's Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi, was attended by senior officials of all the member states, including India.

The fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is scheduled to take place here from August 30 to 31.

The meeting deliberated on a wide range of issues such as BIMSTEC structure, mechanism, procedures, rationalisation of sectors and sub-sectors, strengthening institutional mechanism and BIMSTEC secretariat, according to a statement issued here.

The officials also discussed matters relating to the establishing a BIMSTEC development fund and ways to enhancing collaboration with other regional and international organisations with similar aims and purposes.

The officials recommended a theme 'Towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal Region' for the upcoming summit.

The special meeting reviewed progress on 14 areas of priorities including trade, investment, transport, communications, energy, tourism, agriculture, counter-terrorism, poverty alleviation, public health, environment and natural disaster and climate change set by the member states, according to Bairagi.

The officials also discussed ways to effectively move forward the BIMSTEC process in different areas of cooperation and identified core areas so as to achieve tangible results for moving forward cooperation among the member states.

The objective of organising the meeting was to facilitate the preparations for making the Fourth BIMSTEC summit a great success, and exchange views on important issues of common interest, Bairagi added.