Sri Lanka to host next BIMSTEC summit in September this year
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has informed Secretary General of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), M. Shahidul Islam that Sri Lanka will host the next BIMSTEC summit in Colombo this September.
The Secretary General of BIMSTEC had met President Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat, the President’s Media Division has said.
Sri Lanka is the Chair of BIMSTEC from 2018 to 2020. Though Sri Lanka has already hosted three Working Committee meetings, this will be the first one under the new Administration.
The Senior Officials’ Meeting was held from March 01-03 and the BIMSTEC Charter was concluded along with the long overdue rationalization of sectors.
According to local media reports, there were earlier 14 such sectors and many of the areas such as climate and environment were overlapping and this had created various issues. the number of sectors have now been reduced to seven, which in turn will strengthen the institutional mechanisms of BIMSTEC, the President’s Media Division has said.
Under the rationalizing of the sector, Sri Lanka will be the lead country for Science, Technology and Innovation. Bangladesh will lead Trade and Investment, Bhutan on Environment and Climate Change, Myanmar on Agriculture and Food Security, India on Security, Napal on People-to-People Contact and Thailand on Connectivity.
Sri Lanka is the Chair of BIMSTEC and is expected to host the 5th Summit in the latter part of 2020.
OSL take:
The hosting of the next BIMSTEC summit in Sri Lanka in September this year will showcase the growing business/investment potential in Sri Lanka. The summit will also promote Sri Lanka as a MICE destination in the South Asian region. Also, Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean, the ease of doing business environment in the country and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country have made it an attractive business destination in the South Asian region.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20200310/Z_6 |