Morshed assumes BIMSTEC chair Dec 19: Dhaka wants early enforcement of FTA
New Nation, Bangladesh
Morshed assumes BIMSTEC chair Dec 19: Dhaka wants early enforcement of FTA
By UNB, Dhaka
14 December 2005
Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan who formally assumes BIMSTEC chair with the holding of its ministerial meeting here on December 19 said Dhaka wants early enforcement of the FTA in goods in the BIMSTEC region, as production base in Bangladesh is gradually expanding.
"We’ll not wait for long to see the BIMSTEC FTA enforced," he told diplomatic correspondents at his office.
The free-trade area in goods is scheduled to be effective on July 1, 2006. The experts of member-countries-Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand - will meet for final round of negotiations on December 21-27 in Kathmandu. If the experts could not reach consensus at the upcoming meeting, they would sit in January again. Khan said the Commerce Ministers of the new economic grouping would meet in Dhaka to sign the FTA for its implementation.
Besides, FTA in service and FTA in investment are scheduled to come into force from early 2008. Preliminary negotiations on these would also start at the Kathmandu meeting.
In reply to a question, Khan said the forthcoming BIMSTEC ministerial meeting would mainly focus on trade, poverty alleviation, connectivity, and cooperation in energy and combating terrorism and trans-nation crimes.
At the moment BIMSTEC has no charter or secretariat. The ministerial meeting would also discuss whether the forum needs any charter and secretariat to give it an institutional shape.
The meeting would identify the priority areas of cooperation and set the future direction of the forum, launched on June 6, 1997.
Bhutanese Trade and Industry Minister Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahmed, Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win, Nepalese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ramesh Nath Pandey, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Thai Foreign Minister Dr Kantathi Suphamongkhon will arrive here on December 18 to attend the 8th ministerial meeting.
The one-day ministerial meeting will be preceded by the 10th BIMSTEC Senior Officials Meeting to be represented by Foreign Secretaries of the member-states who will be in Dhaka on December 17.
Bhutanese Foreign Secretary Ms. Neten Zangmo, Indian Secretary (East) of the External Affairs Ministry Rajiv Sikri, Myanmar Foreign Ministry DG U Win Mra, Nepal Acting Foreign Secretary Nabin Bahadur Shrestha, Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Karunatilaka Amunogama and Thai Deputy Permanent Secretary Thakur Phanit will attend the officials’ meeting.
The meeting will also discuss external linkages of BIMSTEC-renamed after entry of Bhutan and Nepal in 2004 as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
On December 18, the senior officials of BIMSTEC would consider a series of reports on trade and investment, transport and communications, tourism, energy, technology, agriculture, fisheries and textile sectors.
They would also discuss the matters of people-to-people contact, BIMSTEC business-travel card and ADB’s cooperation with the sub-regional forum.
The first BIMSTEC summit was held in Bangkok on July 31, 2004 with the participation of heads of state and government. The next summit is likely to be held in India in 2007.
