Some Asian nations eye free trade pact
The Associated Press/Dhaka, Bangladesh
Some Asian nations eye free trade pact
By Parveen Ahmed, Associated Press Writer
19 December 2005
A free trade pact between seven South and Southeast Asia nations was likely to be in place by July 2006, Bangladesh’s foreign minister said Monday after a meeting of a regional economic forum.
Ministers and senior officials from India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Bangladesh have been meeting since Sunday in the Bangladeshi capital to review areas of cooperation within the group, known as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC.
"We had a very successful and substantive meeting. You can term it as a turning point for BIMSTEC," Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan told a news conference in Dhaka.
Khan added that officials were "absolutely hopeful" that the free trade agreement would come into effect as scheduled, on July 1, 2006.
The agreement on trade in goods, services and investment is expected to boost economic growth and strengthen the global bargaining power of the southern Asian region — home to nearly 1.3 billion people, with a combined GDP of US$750 billion (euro650 billion).
The deal has the potential of creating intra-regional trade of between US$40 billion to $60 billion (euro35 billion to euro50 billion), officials said.
"BIMSTEC can legitimately aspire to grow into a powerful economic community," Khan said.
Trade and economic ministers are expected to sign a final deal early next year in Dhaka, he said.
A framework agreement for a free trade zone was signed in February, and the group’s trade negotiating committee is expected to work out outstanding issues at a meeting starting Wednesday in the Nepalese capital, Katmandu.
The officials also discussed other priority sectors like technology, energy and tourism, while identifying new areas for cooperation such as poverty alleviation and counterterrorism and transborder crimes.
They also agreed to form an expert group to examine establishing a permanent secretariat and a charter for the organization, launched in 1997.
"BIMSTEC has been in existence for over eight years, we must now move into implementing the measures we have identified, and consolidate the gains we have achieved," Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said earlier while inaugurating the ministerial meeting Monday.
