New Delhi: Upping its growing engagement with Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), India will be hosting the first-ever business summit for the grouping. The summit will be a three-day event from 6-8 August organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here in the national capital.
Headquartered in Dhaka, BIMSTEC is an inter-regional grouping that seeks to foster regional and economic cooperation among nations in the Bay of Bengal region. Member states include India, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. This grouping is home to over 20 percent of the world’s population with a combined GDP of over $5 trillion.
Owing to issues within the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) — particularly when its 2016 summit slated to be held in Pakistan was suspended after member countries declined to participate — BIMSTEC has gradually emerged as the “preferred platform” for regional cooperation in South Asia.
Talking about the upcoming event, sources said it will be hosted by India in the run-up to the 6th BIMSTEC Summit to be hosted by Thailand, the current chair of the grouping, later this year.
The BIMSTEC Business Summit is expected to see a slew of high-level attendees, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. Invitees will also include government officials and business delegations from the seven BIMSTEC member states.
However, it is unclear if officials from Myanmar’s junta will be extended invites.
In early 2022, the seven members of BIMSTEC signed the charter at the 5th BIMSTEC summit held virtually in Colombo, but it took two more years for the document to be ratified by all members. Nepal was the final piece of the puzzle — its parliament endorsed the charter in early April this year.
This meant that the BIMSTEC charter came into force 27 years after its inception.
Though the agenda of the upcoming business summit is yet to be finalised, port connectivity, infrastructure and potentially the ongoing talks for a BIMSTEC free trade agreement will be discussed.
The framework agreement on BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed in early 2004. An FTA would cover goods, services, investment and economic cooperation among the member countries. However, the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) to carry forward the negotiations has held about twenty rounds of negotiations to no avail.
Last June, a top official from the BIMSTEC Secretariat said the FTA talks are progressing “slowly” and certain components like trade facilitation and mutual assistance on Customs-related matters are yet to be finalised before implementation can take place.
Sources also told ThePrint that the MEA is exploring the possibility of setting up three BIMSTEC Centres of Excellence in the areas of agriculture, marine research and maritime transport.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: SAARC in coma but sub-regional cooperation has risen, says visiting Nepal MP