What is in news: Extending greetings on 24th BIMSTEC Day on June 6, PM Narendra Modi said, BIMSTEC has emerged as a promising regional grouping and made progress on several factors including finalisation of master plan for connectivity.

What is BIMSTEC:

• BIMSTEC is acronym for “Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation”.
• It is a regional multilateral organisation established on June 6, 1997 in Bangkok under the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar was included to it in 1997 following which group was renamed as ‘BIMST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). After Nepal & Bhutan become full members in 2004, BIMSTEC was renamed to its current form.

Members of BIMSTEC

Seven members of BIMSTEC are littoral and adjacent areas of Bay of Bengal constituting a regional unity. 5 are South Asian countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal & Sri Lanka while 2 countries- Myanmar & Thailand- are from Southeast Asia.

Aim of BIMSTEC

BIMSTEC connects South and Southeast Asia besides ecologies of Great Himalayas and Bay of Bengal. It was established with the aims of creating an enabling environment for rapid economic development and accelerating social progress.