BIMSTEC ministerial meeting to approve Poverty Plan of Action

Jan-14th-2012
KATHMANDU: The country is ready to host seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) second ministerial meeting on Poverty Alleviation on Monday.

“The meeting will discuss on Poverty Plan of Action (PPA) draft and finalise the strategy to fight against poverty regionally,” said vice chairman of National Planning Commission Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, who will take part in the high level government officials meeting on Sunday. The PPA draft — prepared by Nepal as asked by the member countries in the first ministerial meeting on poverty in Dhaka in 2008 — has broad strategy, action plan on how to fight against poverty regionally and implementation aspect, that the member countries will discuss broadly, said member secretary of the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) Raj Babu Shrestha.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha will inaugurate the meeting on January 16, while Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun will lead the Nepali team. Except Pun, the ministers of the respective member countries — Bhutan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India — will take part in the discussions.

Poverty is a key regional concern as significant portion of the people in the region are still living under the poverty line, apart from rising rich poor gap that has posed a huge challenge to the governments. A day before the ministerial meeting high level government officials from the seven member countries will meet to take stock of the progress of the earlier meetings and propose agendas for the ministerial meeting.

The high level meeting is also expected to discuss on pro-poor and inclusive growth, social development, social safety net, and programmes on poverty reduction, boosting growth and good governance, according to PAF — the focal agency that is facilitating the meeting.

“The meeting will also share experience on poverty alleviation and identify mutual areas of cooperation in the regional level,” Shrestha said, adding that BIMSTEC has 14 priority sectors including trade and investment, technology, energy, transport and communication, tourism, fisheries, agriculture, cultural cooperation, environment and disaster management, public health, people-to-people contact, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism and transnational crimes and climate change.

Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Economic Cooperation established in 1997 as sub-regional grouping in Bangkok as Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIST-EC) renamed itself as Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar also joined the group, though Nepal and Bhu-tan received a full membership in 2003.

Himal