The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

The first ministerial meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will be held here on July 9 to discuss poverty reduction cooperation.

It will be preceded by a senior officials meeting of the forum on July 8, official sources here said on Monday.

The BIMSTEC ministerial meeting will review poverty situation in the member states and their strategies for attaining millennium development goals (MDGs), the sources said.

They will also evaluate different dimensions of poverty and steps already taken to ameliorate poverty situation in the member countries.

Chief adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed is expected to inaugurate the ministerial meeting at Sonargaon Hotel. Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam and Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury are due to attend the meeting.

The BIMSTEC groups India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The first BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok in 2004 decided to hold the first ministerial meeting of the grouping in Bangladesh.

The member countries are expected to take initiatives to devise ways and means for project-based cooperation aimed at poverty reduction, the sources said.