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BIMSTEC has not been able to work as expected: FM Gyawali

  1 min 41 sec to read

August 26: Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has admitted that though it’s been 20 years since the establishment of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the regional body has not been able to work as expected. Deliberating on the realities and future priorities for the Bay of Bengal region in a talk programme entitled BIMSTEC: Connecting South and Southeast Asia, Gyawali stressed on the need for sustainable development of various sectors including trade and transit, digital networking, infrastructure and free trade.

Gyawali reminded that the fourth BIMSTEC Summit is being organised next week with the theme ‘Towards a Peaceful, Prosperous and Sustainable Bay of Bengal Region’.

“Nearly one-fourth of the world’s population lives in this region. The size of the economy of this region is over 3 trillion and is growing annually at 6.5 percent. This is an evidence of the vast opportunities BIMSTEC possesses for greater regional cooperation and collaboration,” says Gyawali.

Gywali mentioned that the BIMSTEC member states have to tackle the old and new problems through regional cooperation. He said that poverty, inequality, unemployment and disease are some of the old problems while climate change, terrorism and transnational organised crimes are the new challenges.

“These challenges cannot effectively be addressed through isolated domestic intervention alone.  Therefore, we must find collective and coordinated response to our challenges and problems,” he said.

BIMSTEC is organised with a vision to bridge the gap between South and Southeast Asia. At present, South Asia has 1.7 billion population with USD 3.3 trillion GDP while Southeast Asia has a population of 642 million with a total GDP of USD 2.76 trillion.

According to Gyawali, this summit will prioritize 16 working sectors. Till now, BIMSTEC has been working in various sectors including trade and investment, technology, energy, transportation and communication, tourism, fishery, cultural cooperatives, environment and disaster management, public health, poverty alleviation, terrorism and international crime and climate change.

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