Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation


The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation is an international organisation of seven nations of South Asia and Southeast Asia, housing 1.5 billion people and having a combined gross domestic product of $3.5 trillion. The BIMSTEC member states – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand – are among the countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal.
Fourteen priority sectors of cooperation have been identified and several BIMSTEC centres have been established to focus on those sectors. A BIMSTEC free trade agreement is under negotiation, also referred to as the mini SAARC.
Leadership is rotated in alphabetical order of country names. The permanent secretariat is in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Background

On 6 June 1997, a new sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok under the name BIST-EC. Following the inclusion of Myanmar on 22 December 1997 during a special Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the ’. In 1998, Nepal became an observer. In February 2004, Nepal and Bhutan become full members.
On 31 July 2004, in the first Summit the grouping was renamed as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

Objective

There are 14 main sectors of BIMSTEC along technological and economic cooperation among south Asian and southeast Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
  1. Trade & Investment
  2. Transport & Communication
  3. Energy
  4. Tourism
  5. Technology
  6. Fisheries
  7. Agriculture
  8. Public Health
  9. Poverty Alleviation
  10. Counter-Terrorism & Transnational Crime
  11. Environment & Disaster Management
  12. People-to-People Contact
  13. Cultural Cooperation
  14. Climate Change
Sectors 7 to 13 were added at the 8th Ministerial Meeting in Dhaka in 2005 while the 14th sector was added in 11th Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi in 2008.
Member nations are denoted as Lead Countries for each sector.
The BIMSTEC Permanent Secretariat at Dhaka was opened in 2014 and India contributes 33% of its expenditure. The current Secretary General of the BIMSTEC is Ambassador Mohammad Shahidul Islam from Bangladesh and the former Secretary General was Sumith Nakandala from Sri Lanka.

Chairmanship

The BIMSTEC uses the alphabetical order for the Chairmanship. The Chairmanship of the BIMSTEC has been taken in rotation commencing with Bangladesh.

Member nations

Heads of the member nations

BIMSTEC priority sectors

14 priority areas have been identified with the lead nations appointed to lead the effort:
Priority AreaLead CountryCentreComments
Transport and communicationIndia
TourismIndiaBIMSTEC Tourism Information Centre, Delhi
Counterterrorism and transnational crimeIndiaFour subgroups: Intelligence sharing – Sri Lanka,
Terror financing – Thailand,
Legal – Myanmar,
Law enforcement and narcotics – Myanmar
Environment and disaster managementIndiaBIMSTEC Weather and Climate Centre, Noida
EnergyMyanmarBIMSTEC Energy Centre, BengaluruBIMSTEC Grid Interconnection MoU signed in 2014.
Public HealthThailandBIMSTEC Network of Traditional Medicine in India
AgricultureMyanmar
Trade & InvestmentBangladesh
TechnologySri Lanka
FisheriesThailand
People-to-People ContactThailand
Poverty AlleviationNepal
Climate ChangeBangladesh
Cultural CooperationBhutan1200 ITEC scholarships by India

BIMSTEC Free Trade Area Framework Agreement

The BIMSTEC Free Trade Area Framework Agreement has been signed by all member nations to stimulate trade and investment in the parties, and attract outsiders to trade with and invest in the BIMSTEC countries at a higher level. Subsequently, the "Trade Negotiating Committee" was set up, with Thailand as the permanent chair, to negotiate in areas of trade in goods and services, investment, economic co-operation, trade facilitations and technical assistance for LDCs. Once negotiation on trade in goods is completed, the TNC would then proceed with negotiation on trade in services and investment.
The BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement draft was discussed on 1 December 2017 in New Delhi, to facilitate coastal shipping within 20 nautical miles of the coastline in the region to boost trade between the member countries. Compared to the deep sea shipping, coastal ship require smaller vessels with lesser draft and involve lower costs. Once the agreement becomes operational after it is ratified, a lot of cargo movement between the member countries can be done through the cost effective, environment friendly and faster coastal shipping routes.
On 7th and 8th of November, 2019, the first ever BIMSTEC Conclave of Ports summit was held in Visakhapatnam, India. The main aims of this summit is providing a platform to strengthen maritime interaction, port-led connectivity initiatives and sharing best practices among member countries.

Cooperation with Asian Development Bank (ADB)

The Asian Development Bank becomes a partner in 2005, to undertake the "BIMSTEC Transport Infrastructure and Logistic Study", which was completed in 2014.

BIMSTEC Summits

No.DateHost countryHost city
1st31 July 2004Bangkok
2nd13 November 2008New Delhi
3rd4 March 2014Naypyidaw
4th30–31 August 2018Kathmandu
5th2020Colombo

Projects