Dhaka to sign Trans-Asian Railway Network accord

Bangladesh will sign the Intergovernmental Agreement on Trans-Asian Railway Network with a view to establishing railway connectivity among the Asian countries as well as with Europe.

The Council of Advisors approved a proposal in this regard yesterday at its regular meeting held at Chief Adviser’s Office with Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair.

The aim of the landmark deal is boosting trade and tourism in the Asia-Pacific region through developing transport communications in Asian and its surrounding countries.

The transport link will gradually connect the European countries with the trans-border railway, which will enter into Bangladesh from three directions in the west while there will be a single get out in the east.

Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim told reporters that the meeting directed the ministries concerned to take necessary action to sign the agreement by 2008 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The proposed three routes to be passed through Bangladesh are: Route—1 Gede (West Bengal, India) Darshana (Chuadanga, Bangladesh)-Ishwardy-Jamuna Bridge-Joydevepur-Akhaura-Chittagong-Dohazari-Gundhum-Myanmar,Route-2—Singabad (West Bengal)-Rajshahi (Bangladesh)-Iswardy-Jamuna Bridge-Jodevpur-Akhaura-Chittagong-Dohazari-Gundum-Myanmar and Route—3 Radikkapur (West Bengal)-Dinajpur-Ishwardy-Jamuna Bridge-Joydevpur-Akhaura-Chittagong-Dohazari-Gundhum-Myanmar.
Earlier in November 2006, a conference on Transport in South Korea, organised by UN ESCAP, approved a proposal for striking the agreement. Eighteen countries, including China, Nepal, Iran and Indonesia, instantly signed the deal.

The deadline for signing the agreement by other interested countries was set from Nov 10-11, 2006 to December 2008.

The proposal for the signing the inter-governmental agreement on the 81,000km railway network, also dubbed as the Iron Silk Road, connecting 32 countries. The ever-biggest venture in rail communications in human history is to take effect within 90 days of completion of the deal signing.

Bangladesh earlier refused to ratify another UN-sponsored Asian Highway project agreement, the deadline for which expired on December 31, 2005, because of its ‘reservations’ about the proposed Route AH1 as both its entry and exit points were in India, which the BNP-led alliance government feared would eventually turn out to be a ‘transit route for India’.

The then government had preferred Route AH41, the entry point of which would have been in India and the exit point in Myanmar. But Route AH41 was shown as a sub-regional one in the Asian Highway map.

The Council of Advisors of the interim government also discussed the option for modernising the Trademark Law that was enacted way back in 1940. Now the law is not functionally acceptable in line with international guidelines.

The meeting asked the committee, formed earlier to prepare the draft of the Trademark Ordinance 2007 in line with the guidelines of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to submit the draft by June 30.

The meeting also discussed the ways of making government pension process easier and expediting its action so that pensioners can get their annuity timely and smoothly.
The Chief Adviser directed the concerned authorities to take necessary action in this regard and urged the Ministries to prepare separate lists of pensioners of the respective ministries.

Members of the council of advisers attended the meeting while secretaries concerned were present.