Statement by the Hon. Foreign Minister of Bangladesh
9th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting
New Delhi; 9 August 2006

Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Foreign Ministers of BIMSTEC member states,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me at the outset say how happy I am to be in Delhi for this 9th BIMSTEC Ministerial meeting. I would like to thank you for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to the members of my delegation and me ever since our arrival here. The arrangements made for this meeting have been excellent and the government of India deserves our utmost thanks and appreciation for the meticulous work that has gone into the preparation of this meeting.

We are especially delighted that you Mr. Chairman would be presiding over the proceedings of our meeting. Your dynamic leadership, constant guidance and valuable inputs would undoubtedly enrich our deliberations immensely. We look forward to a very successful meeting under your leadership.

BIMSTEC - the youngest of all the organizations conceived to promote cooperation in our region was launched in 1997. Soon we shall be completing the first decade of its activities. From that perspective, our present meeting is of special significance. During this 9th Ministerial Meeting we shall have the unique opportunity to appraise how our organization has fared in achieving the objectives we set before it. More importantly, before the BIMSTEC Summit next year this is also the occasion when we can put our heads together to plan for the future so that BIMSTEC becomes a strong and dynamic institution, we want BIMSTEC to contribute positively to the growth and prosperity of all the member states. The challenge before us during this meeting is not only to discuss about potentials and possibilities we should also focus on initiating actions needed to actualize the immense prospect of regional cooperation taking full advantage of the BIMSTEC mechanisms.

When we launched BIMSTEC in 1997 we were all mindful of several factors. We then believed that BIMSTEC could play the role of a unique link between South Asia and South East Asia. This institution we hoped would bring together approximately 1.3 billion or about 20% of the global population who accounted for a gross GDP of over 750 billon US dollars of the member states. We placed our confidence in the possibility to transform our region into a veritable power house of growth. This we planned to achieve through synergies of collaborative efforts that would enable member countries to prosper together. BIMSTEC, we also thought would be the institution enabling us to address the challenges of rapid globalization and better equip us to benefit from many opportunities in the fast evolving regional and international economic matrix.

These fundamentals still remain unchanged. I need not reiterate how all our countries stand to benefit from a BIMSTEC process which is rooted in the realities of our region and action oriented. During the Bangladesh chairmanship it has been our conscious effort to ensure that our actions within the BIMSTEC framework remains result oriented and for that we encouraged sustained engagement, critical review and where necessary, appropriate initiatives. I trust that the member states would appreciate what we have achieved together during our chairmanship.

Mr. Chairman,

The 1997 Bangkok Declaration rightly stressed on creating enabling environment and rapid economic development as the prime objectives of the Grouping. At the First BIMSEC Summit, our Leaders gave us important guidance to deepen regional cooperation from that perspective. At the last Ministerial Meeting in Dhaka, we had the first opportunity to review implementation of the Summit decisions. Over the two years since the First Summit, there has been notable progress in some areas. In Dhaka last December, we decided to expand the areas of cooperation from six to thirteen.

Mr. Chairman,

We are happy to note that our Senior Officials have reviewed the progress in cooperation and has finalized a draft Ministerial Joint Statement. They have covered all the substantive areas and I appreciate their work. I would however make a few general observations.

First, next year, BIMSTEC would be observing completion of its first decade. At this point, it would be worthwhile for us to think of the road ahead. We have made progress in trade, investment and other areas of economic cooperation. Expanding economic cooperation necessitated discussion on institutional issues during our last Ministerial Meeting. Following that, discussion on a Permanent Secretariat has already started. But, I believe, we need to ponder first over the question of a Charter for our Group.

Second, in the first decade, we have remained engaged in identifying the areas of cooperation, norms and procedures of engagements and the modalities. Now it will be useful to think of goals and targets that we aim to attain during BIMSTEC's second decade. With a strategic roadmap, I believe, BIMSTEC could progress further. What we need is a focused and result-oriented approach in different sectors of cooperation.

Third, since its inception, we have been pursuing our agenda of regional cooperation on a project-based mode. I believe we need to review how far we have benefited from such an approval and whether we could think of any other approach to realize concrete sectoral projects. We live in a rapidly changing era when many innovative approaches and modalities have come up in undertaking collaborative projects. We may learn from a few of such best practices with a view to emulate them in our region.

Fourth, focus of our activities and discussions have by and large remained intergovernmental in nature. Now that we have made some progress in different sectors, basic rules of engagement are defined and we are focusing on specific activities, we really need to consider how best we could utilize the strength of an extremely dynamic and innovative civil society that exists in our countries. By civil society, I mean a range of actors like think tanks, private sector entrepreneurs, NGOs, academia, rights activists and so on. As we step into the second decade of BIMSTEC, we should seriously consider this aspect particularly to see as to how best they could be involved with the inter-governmental process to deepen regional cooperation.

A related issue is to deepen people-to-people contacts. In terms of our scheme of cooperation, it largely falls within the areas of tourism and culture. The first-ever BIMSTEC Cultural Ministers Meeting in Bhutan (May 2006) took some important decisions. These are indeed welcome. But, we need to think of more measures and the ones that would benefit people directly. Easier movement of professionals and people at large as well as simplification of all related procedures would ultimately bring our people closer.

Fifth, it is the issue association of with outside (non-member) States. During the Bangladesh Chairmanship, one of our premier think tanks BIISS organized a forum with a leading Japanese think-tank Sasakawa Foundation on possible collaboration between BIMSTEC and Japan. The ideas and suggestions that generated there demonstrated that BIMSTEC as a whole and individually its member states could benefit from institutional cooperation with a major development partner like Japan. My point is whatever be the form we collectively decide on involvement of non-member states, we need to recognize their growing interest in involving themselves with BIMSTEC. This could usher in a new era for BIMSTEC and necessitate drawing some sort of a guideline for such engagement.

My final observation is a specific one. This is on BIMSTEC FTA. When we met during the last Ministerial Meeting, we were hopeful that the negotiation on the FTA could be concluded in time so that the FTA would come into force as stipulated on 1 July 2006. Clearly, we have missed that deadline. Given the current state of negotiation, my apprehension is that unless all our countries demonstrate further flexibility, we may fail see the larger canvass and to appreciate that the FTA would mark the first major and visible undertaking among member states directly benefiting the common people.

Mr. Chairman,

We have been engaging in BIMSTEC all along with the vision that our economies must grow together. Our motto should be mutual benefit and our guiding force regional solidarity. For us, it is vital that BIMSTEC forges ahead. With these in mind, I leave the ideas and observations for you to ponder over. Before concluding let me express my deepest gratitude to all my colleagues for the cooperation we received during our Chairmanship. We hope, the same sprit will prevail during the Chairmanship of India.

I thank you all.