BIMST-EC (Bangladesh India Myanmar Sri Lanka Thailand Economic Cooperation)

Thailand hosted the 1st BIMSTEC Summit on 31 July 2004 in accordance with the agreement reached at the 5th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting on 20 December 2002 in Colombo, when the Sri Lanka Prime Minister raised an idea that it was time to elevate BIMSTEC meeting to the level of leaders’ summit, as a proof of strong will towards the common goal.

1. Overview

The 1st BIMSTEC Summit took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand on 31 July 2004. It was attended by the leaders of all member countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and chaired by the Prime Minister of Thailand. On the eve of the 1st Summit, SOM and Ministerial Meeting were held to prepare for the summit. Leaders also had a chance to be in audience with His Majesty the King and had bilateral talks with the Prime Minister.

2. Summit Retreat

All leaders enthusiastically exchanged their views on issues in wide range. The Prime Minister of Thailand stressed the necessity of concrete progress in all 6 areas of cooperation, urging respective Lead Countries to act like the prime-movers in the ACD forum. Leaders agreed with the Prime Minister’s suggestion to construct a regional map of tourist destinations, and India offered to host a round-table ministerial meeting on tourism which allows participation of the private sector. Also in this occasion, the leaders discussed some new issues such as counter-terrorism cooperation, where the Prime Minister of Thailand emphasised the importance of mutual trust, by which leaders can contact one another by telephone in order to eliminate protocol and formalities. India offered to host a senior officials’ meeting on this area of cooperation in late 2004, aiming at establishing a network of intelligence exchange and capacity building. The meeting addressed the importance of poverty alleviation. The Prime Minister of Thailand suggested that the measures applied must focus on the poor, namely cutting expenses, increasing income and working opportunities. In this connection, Thailand is prepared to provide credit line to BIMSTEC countries for importing Thai agricultural products. The price insurance of agricultural products should be discussed in the Ministerial Meeting on Poverty Reduction to be hosted by Bangladesh. In addition, Thailand also stressed the cooperation among producers of agricultural products. The Summit discussed the need for protection of biodiversity in order to use the regional resources efficiently, bearing in mind the legal protection. Besides, the meeting agreed to set up the Network of National Centres of Excellence to promote traditional medicine and generic drugs for the poor. Thailand offered to be the lead country on this area of cooperation. India’s offer to host a Ministerial Meeting on Energy Cooperation and Bhutan’s offer to host a Ministerial Meeting on Cultural Cooperation were welcome. The meeting tasked the Foreign Ministers to be responsible for overall cooperation under BIMSTEC. The Summit was agreed to be held roughly every 2 years on voluntary basis, where India offered to host the next one in 2006.

3. Summit Declaration

The Meeting adopted the BIMSTEC Summit Declaration which renamed the grouping as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) The Declaration highlights the founding objective and principle at BIMSTEC which focus on development of regional potentials, progress in the existing 6 sectors of cooperation and expansion to new areas such as public health, protection of biodiversity and traditional wisdom, education, rural area development, SMEs , construction, environment, information technology, biological technology, meteorological research, and mitigation and management of natural disasters. The Declaration also emphasises the importance of early completion of negotiation on the BIMSTEC free trade area, the necessity of cooperation against terrorism and transnational crimes, as well as other trans-border problems such as HIV/AIDS and other public health issues. The Declaration stresses the importance of people-to-people contact and the role of private sector by agreeing to facilitate travel within the region though the BIMSTEC Business Travel Card and/or BIMSTEC Visa. Click here to view the Prime Minister’s Press Statement.