4th BIMSTEC Summit to be held in Kathmandu on 30-31 August

4th BIMSTEC Summit will be held in Kathmandu from 30 to 31 August. Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has said that connectivity and poverty alleviation will be top priority of the summit.

During an interaction with the media persons in Kathmandu on Friday evening, Gyawali said that main focus of the summit will be to increase connectivity between the BIMSTEC nations including roads, airways and transmission lines. He also said that some concrete steps will be taken for poverty alleviation among the member countries.

The Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional economic bloc comprising seven member states lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.

The group was formed in 1997 and it brings together Bangladesh, Bhutan India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. Nepal is the current chair of BIMSTEC.