The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam on Tuesday called for effective regional cooperation among BIMSTEC member countries to ensure food security and prevent negating the gains already achieved in poverty alleviation.

"The sheer availability of food is under strain, in part, because of the impact of climate change to which the member countries of BIMSTEC have contributed little," he said, inaugurating the BIMSTEC senior officials' meeting at Sonargaon Hotel.

The meeting, preceding the first BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting on Poverty Alleviation scheduled here on Wednesday, will set agenda for discussion in the ministerial to be inaugurated by Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed.

The Finance Adviser said the recent global scenario has become highly unfavourable for the poor due to the dramatic increases in the prices of food grains, fuel and fertilizer, giving rise to "ugly inflation."

"Their (poor) capacity to meet minimal food requirements is severely constrained as they have hardly any saving to draw down," he said, seeking valuable input for the Ministerial meeting tomorrow.

He expected that the Ministerial would adopt concrete steps towards reaching shared destination of establishing societies free from the curse of hunger, deprivation and poverty.

The Finance Adviser apprised the meeting of Bangladesh's efforts in mitigating the sufferings of the people due to inflation through social safety net measures and employment creation programmes.

He also told the meeting that Bangladesh had set up a climate change fund to implement adaptation and mitigation measures for dealing with the impact of natural disasters induced by climate change.

The BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) was formed on June 6, 1997 in Bangkok and its member countries are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.