Bay of Bengal Initiative for
Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation |
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Secretariat | Dhaka, Bangladesh |
Membership (In Alphabetical Order ) | |
Leaders | |
• Chairmanship
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Nepal (since 2014) |
Establishment | 6 June 1997 |
Website
www |
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia. These are: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
On 6 June 1997, a new sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok and given the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation).Myanmar attended the inaugural June Meeting as an observer and joined the organisation as a full member at a Special Ministerial Meeting held in Bangkok on 22 December 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMST-EC. Nepal was granted observer status by the second Ministerial Meeting in Dhaka in December 1998. Subsequently, full membership has been granted to Nepal and Bhutan in February 2004.
In the first Summit on 31 July 2004, leaders of the group agreed that the name of the grouping should be known as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
Bimstec Headquarters is situated in Dhaka, Bangladesh and opened by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (13 September 2014)
The main objective of BIMSTEC is technological and economic cooperation among south Asian and south east Asian countries along the coast of the bay of Bengal . Commerce, investment, technology, tourism, human resource development, agriculture, fisheries, transport and communication, textiles, leather etc. have been included in it .
Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal