Does BIMSTEC as multilateral organization has any future
Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation(BIMSTEC) is a group between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri lanka, Thailand which consist together 1.5 billion people which is almost 21 % of the population and a combination of GDP 2.5 trillion dollar.
This corporation is formally known as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand) which is created in Dec 1997 Bangkok. This organization was renamed as BIMSTEC after group expanded when Nepal and Bhutan were admitted in Feb 2004.
Main objectives of this Cooperation are
Main motto of this association is to encourage rapid economic development and encourage trade, tourism, agriculture, energy, and infrastructure Support all others on the matters of common interest in social, technical and scientific field Maintain join effort that are supportive and complementary to national development plan Asian Development Bank is the development partner of this association for promote infrastructure Make best use of available energy among BIMSTIC member country But there are some drawback of this association for that some of experts may thought it don't have that much of bright area like SAARC and BRICS.
BRIMSTEC is neither a funding agency nor an implementing agency so its influence over implementation of project is limited. Area of interest among the members is different as the economic condition among the members is different like India with other least development country. Another drawback is the absence of china in BIMSTEC as the biggest economy is absence this grouping is bound to slow. As like SAARC this group is not on the top priority of the countries.
The main achievement of his group is BIMSTEC Free Trade Framework Agreement. It is in order to stimulate trade and investment in the parties and attract outsider to invest in BRIMSTEC at higher level. Its negotiation area covers trade in goods and services investment, economic corporation as well as trade facilitation and also technical facilities for Least Development Country in BIMSTEC.
As the absence of Pakistan unlike SAARC BRIMSTEC not hostage any perennial conflict such as Indo-Pak one
Importance of BRIMSTEC for India
Myanmar is very important for Indian economy as the country share 1643 Km border with the northeastern state of Manipur Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh According to report BIMSTEC has the potential to produce almost 40 billion USD under the process of Free Trade Agreement India has a policy named Look East Policy (LEP) which encourages our relation with our east side five neighbor country. People of our some bordering state like Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram have close familial and cultural connection with other with whom we share International Border like Myanmar. Despite of economic focus BIMSTEC is also aim of integration of people who have same cultural thought but stays in different country.
Lastly we can say that it is a good opportunity for it to be benefited from northeastern Asia Economic zone and increase trading and create cultural relationship. Although it has some minor drawbacks this cooperation has a good prospect in future
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