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Speakers at an international conference on Monday stressed the need for expediting creation of free trade area among the member states of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
They said that enhancing regional cooperation in the BIMSTEC area is crucial to the economic emancipation of the 1.5 billion people living in the region.
They were addressing a conference titled “Bay of Bengal Economic Dialogue: Post Covid Challenges in the Bay of Bengal Region” held on virtual platform.
Professor Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM) moderated the dialogue.
The dialogue was organised by SANEM in collaboration with some regional organisations.
Strong political will is needed to make the BIMSTEC a vibrant region, said Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen.
He said that materialising the BIMSTEC free trade area is a must to promote trade cooperation among the member states.
The minister also urged the member states to make continuous efforts to enhance connectivity in the area as per the declarations of the BIMSTEC.
Dr Momen said a concerted move is needed to find out the mechanism to counter the non traditional security threats like the Covid pandemic.
Mr Tenzin Lekphell, Secretary General of the BIMSTEC urged the member states to share multi sectoral technology to fight Covid.
Truths Raj Wagle, joint secretary of Nepal foreign ministry expressed his country’s strong commitment to create a regional mechanism to address the challenges emerged in the post Covid area.
He stressed the need for enhancing cooperation in power, trade, agriculture and specially in fighting the climate impact on mountains and marine ecosystems.
Among others, Ambassador Bernered Goonetilleke of Sri Lanka, Chuntinton Sam Gongsakdi of Thailand and director general of Research and Information Syestem for Developing Countries (RIS), India Professor Sachin Chaturvedi spoke on the session.