BIMSTEC

• BIMSTEC stands for Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
• It is an international organization of seven nations of South Asia and South East Asia.
• It comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand.
• Its Permanent Secretariat is at Dhaka which was opened in 2014 and India provides 33% (65% of region's population) of its expenditure. 
• It brings together 1.5 billion people – 21% of the world population, and a combined GDP of over US$ 2.7 trillion.
• This sub-regional organization started on 6 June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.
• Initially, the economic bloc was formed with four Member States with the acronym ‘BIST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
• After inclusion of Myanmar on 22 December 1997, the Group was renamed ‘BIMST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
• Initially, Nepal in 1998 joined as an observer.
• Later with the admission of and Nepal and Bhutan as full-time members at the 6th Ministerial Meeting (February 2004, Thailand). Then the name was changed to ‘BIMSTEC’.
• BIMSTEC uses the alphabetical order for the Chairmanship. The Chairmanship of BIMSTEC has been taken in rotation commencing with Bangladesh.
• On July 31, 2004, in the first Summit, the grouping was renamed as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

Objectives of BIMSTEC

• To create an enabling environment for rapid economic development through identification and implementation of specific cooperation projects in the sectors of trade, investment and industry, technology, human resource development, tourism, agriculture, energy, and infrastructure and transportation.
• To accelerate the economic growth and social progress in the sub-region through joint endeavors in a spirit of equality and partnership.
• To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, technical and scientific fields.
• To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational, professional and technical spheres.
• To maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organizations with similar aims and purposes.

BIMSTEC’s Principles

• Cooperation within BIMSTEC will be based on respect for the principle of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence, no-interference in internal affairs, peaceful coexistence and mutual benefit.
• Cooperation within BIMSTEC will constitute an addition to and not be a substitute for bilateral, regional or multilateral cooperation involving the Member States.

Focused area

• BIMSTEC is a sector-driven cooperative organization. Starting with six sectors including trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries for sectoral cooperation.
• Later it expanded to embrace nine more sectors including agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism, environment, culture, people to people contact and climate change in 2008.

BIMSTEC Summits

• ADB (Asian Development Bank) become a partner in 2005 to undertake the "BIMSTEC Transport Infrastructure and Logistic Study" (BTILS), which was completed in 2014.

Initiatives and agreements

• Disaster Management Exercise (BIMSTEC DMEx-2017) conducted by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) 10-13 October 2017.
• BIMSTEC Free Trade Area Framework Agreement (BFTAFA) has been signed by all member nations to stimulate trade and investment in the parties and attract outsiders to trade with and invest in BIMSTEC.
• Subsequently, the "Trade Negotiating Committee" (TNC) was set up, with Thailand as the permanent chair.
• BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement draft was discussed on 1 December 2017 at New Delhi, to facilitate coastal shipping within 20 nautical miles of the coastline in the region to boost trade between the member countries.

Importance of BIMSTEC

• The BIMSTEC region offers a market of 1.6 billion people, about a fifth of the global population.
• BIMSTEC has emerged as a key vehicle to take forward India’s regional, strategic and economic interests.
• Unlike SAARC, BIMSTEC is not hostage to any perennial conflict such as the Indo-Pak dispute.

Challenges

• Lack of good infrastructure.
• The growth of intra-regional investment is negligible.
• The region lacks physical connectivity.

Recent Summit in 2018

• The 4th BIMSTEC Summit concluded in Kathmandu on August 31, 2018 with the signing and adoption of the Kathmandu Declaration by all the seven members. The Summit began on August 30, 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

• The theme of the fourth BIMSTEC summit is “Towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region”.
• During the Summit, foreign ministers of BIMSTEC member countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection.
• The current chair of BIMSTEC, Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli gave a closing speech after handing over the Chairmanship of the next BIMSTEC Summit to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena. Hence, Sri Lanka will be conducting the fifth summit of the BIMSTEC.

TO STRENGTHEN BIMSTEC

The developments so far under BIMSTEC have been encouraging. To maintain the momentum and to strengthen BIMSTEC as a sustainable platform for regional cooperation, the following steps must be considered

1. Consistency in the frequency of the summits to ensure regularity in decision-making;
2. Improving the capacity of the secretariat, both in terms of manpower and funding;
3. Ensuring tangible results/benefits, which will add to the motivation of the countries to concentrate on BIMSTEC (projects in the areas of tourism, digital connectivity, energy connectivity and humanitarian assistance in disaster relief should be considered); and
4. Empowering BIMSTEC to be a platform for dispute resolution among member countries. This will require debates and discussions among the BIMSTEC countries to reach a consensus.

• BIMSTEC offers many opportunities to its member countries. For India, it aids in its Look East Policy and South­–South cooperation efforts. The development of the Northeastern region, by opening up to Bangladesh and Myanmar, is another incentive. For Thailand, BIMSTEC helps in its Look West policy. Under the BIMSTEC framework, smaller nations, too, can benefit from the markets in India and Thailand.
• BIMSTEC provides the Bay of Bengal nations an opportunity to work together to create a common space for peace and development.
• The two organisations—SAARC and BIMSTEC—focus on geographically overlapping regions. However, this does not make them equal alternatives. SAARC is a purely regional organization, whereas BIMSTEC is interregional and connects both South Asia and ASEAN countries. BIMSTEC provides SAARC countries a unique opportunity to connect with ASEAN.

BIMSTEC vs SAARC: At a Glance

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