View: Time has come to realise the BIMSTEC dream

The 5th BIMSTEC Summit ended on March 30 in Colombo. The Summit adopted the BIMSTEC Charter for the first time, since its inception in 1997, and signed three Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) on the BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, Mutual Cooperation Between Diplomatic Academics/Training Institutions of the BIMSTEC Member States, and Establishment of BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility in Colombo. According to the newly adopted BIMSTEC Charter, the Summit will take place every two years and the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the BIMSTEC Member States will take place each year. BIMSTEC took 25 years to set in place a charter for the regional block, compared to ASEAN, which took almost 46 years for the same.

With charter in place, the leaders are now committed to promote the BIMSTEC partnership guided by the fundamental principles, shared values and norms that have steered the relations since its establishment in 1997. Though the progress in regional integration in the BIMSTEC, even after the 25 years of BIMSTEC, has remained slow, the successful implementation of the agreements of the 5th Summit can pave the way for the hugely aspired greater integration in the Bay of Bengal region.

BIMSTEC provides a unique opportunity for its members from South Asia and Southeast Asia to collaborate for mutual benefit. By global standards, BIMSTEC, which was founded in 1997, is a relatively new regional organization. Its seven members come from a variety of geographical, historical, cultural, and developmental backgrounds. BIMSTEC members account for around 22 per cent of the world’s population and 4 per cent of world GDP, demonstrating its considerable potential. Its members have proceeded gradually and carefully to build the institution and foster regional cooperation in a step-by-step manner. In 2014, for example, a permanent secretariat was formed in Dhaka, led by a secretary-general and staffed by seven country directors appointed by the members. Several key areas for collaboration were identified, and recently consolidated into seven major themes, and some BIMSTEC centres were set up on priority subjects for the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, has drastically altered the global economy’s recovery prospects. The global economy is about to enter a new, more uncertain period marked by increased geopolitical, economic, and pandemic threats. Many countries in South and Southeast Asia, particularly small countries, are extremely vulnerable to these threats, and face a bleak future of slower growth, limited market opportunities, rising inflation, and increased poverty.

South Asia looking east and Southeast Asia looking west offers a pathway to mitigate multiple risks and exploit opportunities for trade-led growth in Asia, a potential that remains largely untapped. International experience suggests that effective regional governance is necessary for economic development and achieving a peace dividend.

More has to be done, however, to build on these achievements and position BIMSTEC as an effective organisation tuned to the needs of the new and emerging more uncertain era. For a start, there is the long-standing unfinished agenda item of concluding a BIMSTEC Free Trade Area (FTA) which has been under negotiation since 2004. A comprehensive BIMSTEC FTA can help to reduce barriers to trade and investment and assist the business to join global supply chains. At the 5th Summit, all the heads of the BIMSTEC Governments/States expressed a strong desire to conclude the BIMSTEC FTA negotiation. Therefore, we must bring the BIMSTEC FTA to a successful conclusion within a reasonable time.

The region displays significant complementarity between the members which bodes well for mutually beneficial trade. The foundation of BIMSTEC’s economic growth has been the rules-based open multilateral trading system. Along with it, the FDI must move freely in the region if we want to promote national growth as well as the regional and global value chains.

The 5th Summit also highlighted the importance of energy connectivity, transport connectivity, digital connectivity, and people to people connectivity. Earlier 14 areas of cooperation are now restructured into seven areas. India will be looking after the security component, whereas Thailand is now in-charge of connectivity. Thailand being the current chair of BIMSTEC till 2024 has a big task to run the regional block as well as implement connectivity related activities. The current Master Plan identifies 141 flagship projects to enhance connectivity in the Bay of Bengal region at an estimated cost of US$ 47 billion. Seamless sustainable multi-modal transport links and synergy with other connectivity frameworks like the ASEAN Master Plan on Connectivity 2025 are what the BIMSTEC needs in the post-COVID era. Improving trade facilitation can also speed up the BIMSTEC integration process. Accordingly, moving to a regional single window in customs and a paperless trade regime can help to reduce trade costs and facilitate cross-border business. In fact, the Indian Prime Minister in his speech has called for a high level trade facilitation arrangement for the region.

Nonetheless, significant work is needed to prepare BIMSTEC members to embrace the potential of the fast-moving digital economy. This means investment in digital technologies and related infrastructure, a business-friendly regulatory approach to e-commerce and investing in digital skills. Promoting greater gender equality in education and the workplace for women to have the same opportunities, and are paid the same as men for equal work. It will foster jobs, income and entrepreneurship across BIMSTEC countries.

Maritime cooperation is key to safe and secure trade. Bay of Bengal countries together shall work for maritime safety and security at the sea in cases of search and rescue, humanitarian assistance, coastal surveillance, among others. Regional cooperation in maritime connectivity will ease the burden to trade and investment barriers. At the 5th BIMSTEC summit and pre-Summit consultations, importance of maritime connectivity was felt all across the countries while working together towards achieving SDG 14 targets and ensuring a ‘good order at sea’.

BIMSTEC countries not only differ in their size, geography, population, resource endowment and level of development, they also vary in financial resources, technical skills and development capacity. Most of the members face such constraints that may be further exacerbated for those who are slated to graduate from the group of least developed countries by 2026. In the spirit of solidarity and common purpose, the more advanced members must support the less developed ones so that the benefits of regional integration are spread among all the members.

Fulfilling the economic promise of the BIMSTEC charter and the proposed development agenda under the ‘new normal’ may not be achieved without empowering BIMSTEC Secretariat. The Secretariat needs to be adequately resourced and has sufficient delegated powers to fulfil its role as a coordinator of activities across BIMSTEC members. BIMSTEC Secretariat has been entrusted to come out with the Plans of Action (POA) for the region in view of reorganisation of priority areas of cooperation. It is very encouraging that the Indian Prime Minister announced during the 5th Summit that India would provide US$ 1 million to the BIMSTEC Secretariat to increase its operational budget. Other member countries may come forward with the same gesture. With the increased resources, there is now a need to develop a roadmap for the capacity building of the BIMSTEC Secretariat.

Finally, efforts to overhaul the integration process in the BIMSTEC region requires normative dialogues about the desirable and substantive form of regional architecture in this region. With the strong political will and the newly empowered Secretariat, time has come to realise the BIMSTEC dream.

Prabir De is a Professor at the ASEAN-India Centre (AIC), Research and Information System for Developing Countries, India; Selim Raihan is the Executive Director of SANEM Bangladesh; Ganeshan Wignaraja is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore; Nihal Pitigala is a Senior Fellow at InReach Global

For all the latest world News Click Here 

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.