Bistec To Set Up Sub-Regional Airlines

The Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand economic cooperation (Bistec), a new regional economic grouping launched on June 6 at a ministerial meeting in Bangkok, proposes to set up a sub-regional airline as its first initiative in economic cooperation.

Addressing a press conference in the capital yesterday, Saleem Shervani, minister of state for health, said that the initiative taken by Thailand in 1995 had now been formalised and was a step to consolidating Indias Look East policy.

Myanmar, he said, was expected to join the group by the year-end.

The new group will hold ministerial meetings once a year and Thailand would run the secretariat as the chairman of the grouping.

 

The ministry of external affairs will be the nodal agency for the grouping.

The minister said that the new airline would be a private sector initiative with equity participation from all the countries and would operate on a specific routing the Buddhist pilgrimage.

The name proposed for the new airline is Bistec Airlines.

Secretary A N Ram said that the grouping did not propose to exchange any tariff concessions since all the members were also members of the Bangkok agreement and concessions would be exchanged there.

The minister and the secretary argued that the new initiative would not overlap with existing regional groupings and said that this was an initiative where Saarc was reaching out to the Asean. It may, however, be recalled that there is also a proposal to create a Saarc airlines.Other countries will be free to join the grouping, said the minister, though the name of the group will remain based on the founder members.

The main areas of cooperation will include trade and investment, transportation, infrastructure, science and technology, fisheries, agriculture, human resource development, natural resources and tourism. The group will also explore exploration, development and marketing in the area of oil and natural gas and consultations regarding projects being implemented in fora like Escap and ADB like trans-Asian highway and trans-Asian railway.

China to join Bangkok agreement

China has agreed to join the Bangkok agreement and is in the process of accession. The other active members of the economic group are Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Korea while Laos and Philippines are among the less active members. Recently, Papua New Guinea also joined the agreement. The group will, among other forms of cooperation, also exchange tariff concessions.