Dhananath Fernando  00:12
Hello, hello, everyone! You're joining with Advocata Studio. As you are aware, we bring to the conversation about matters that matters to the economy, and today we have a very special guest on our studio. That's His Excellency Indra Pandey, the Secretary General of BIMSTEC, and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation is a regional integration which advances Technology, economy, and many other aspects that affects everyone's in this beamsk community on a day-to-day basis. So, we are honoured and deeply privileged to have you, Your Excellency, at our studio.

Speaker 1  00:54
Thank you so much, Dana. Thank you for inviting me. I'm very happy to have this conversation with your audience. Thank

Dhananath Fernando  01:01
you very much. First, Your Excellency, for people who really do not have an understanding of what beamstake is all about and why it is important, if you could provide a little bit of clarity on what is the role of beamstick, then I would like to move forward the conversation from there onwards.

Speaker 1  01:19
I think that will be very useful. So let me inform your audience that BIMSTEC was created 28 years ago with initiative of Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, and Thailand as a platform where the four countries could engage in meaningful cooperation on the ground in a variety of areas, and then Myanmar joined six months later, and Nepal and Bhutan joined subsequently in 2004. At that time, in 1990s, countries in South Asia were looking up to Southeast Asia to learn from their experience, and at the same time, Southeast Asian countries wanted to connect with South Asia. So BIMSC was seen as a platform that will bring together countries from South Asia and Southeast Asia. So if you look at our membership, we have Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan from South Asia, and Myanmar and Thailand from Southeast Asia. So this is a unique platform which brings together the two regions. The other unique aspect of this that we have cooperation in a number of sectors, but for a group of sectors, we have designated one member state as the lead member state, so that all the member states contribute equally, and also they have stakes in success of BIMS tech. Our agenda basically is focused on development, but also there is a security component because internal security matters, which have regional dimension, they matter a lot to our member states. So, if I can briefly describe, Bangladesh, for example, leads trade, investment, and development sector, and recently it has been designated as the lead state for blue economy, which will be very important for countries in our region, including Sri Lanka. Then, if you look at Bhutan, it leads in environment and climate change and mountain economy sectors, because Bhutan is the only carbon negative country in our region, and it has preserved its natural heritage. So, it has taken lead in this sector. India takes lead in security sector, but it also takes lead in disaster management, which is very important for our region, and energy cooperation. Then Myanmar has the agriculture and all the related sectors, food security sector of animal husbandry, fisheries, and then Nepal has what we call people-to-people relation sector. So culture, tourism, cooperation among think tanks, youth-related cooperation, and also bringing together our parliamentarians and other part of civil society. Then Sri Lanka, of course, a very important member, a founding member. It leads in science, technology, and innovation, but also in health, and in human resource development, and then the big component of connectivity, which is led by Thailand. So we have made progress during past 28 years. We have now our own. Charter, and we the BIMSTEC has its permanent secretariat located in Dhaka for past 10 years. So that is where the secretariat plays its role by bringing together member states, facilitating their consultation, their coordination, their communication, and also doing research for the member states, producing policy papers, concept papers for our member states.

Dhananath Fernando  05:30
Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for that excellent introduction. So now, anyone who hasn't really been familiar with BIMSTEC, even if you have familiarised with the term, now you know exactly which pillars, which countries, and who leads what, and I would like to dwell a little deeper on the importance of and the progress and what is like the future looks like. Because if you recall, in Sri Lanka, even Advocata spoke about BIMSTEC because the trade is more going towards between the BIMSTEC countries in our region. Because if you look at collectively the population from India, Bangladesh, Thailand, then all of them are quite fast-growing economies, especially in particular India, with very close proximity to Sri Lanka. And so, as there are few members also from the ASEAN, like Thailand, who are giants, so that's the importance of the connectivity between South Asia and Southeast Asia, and that's where the world was pretty much on the side of BIMSTEC when it comes to trade. Your Excellency, just wanted to understand. Now we'll focus from the Sri Lanka's point of view. We are the leader of, or like we are designated with HR and mainly on the health and the technological pillar. What are the deliverables? And could you explain like who is the what is the government agency from our end, or it could be in any other country for the respective pillars? Who leads this, and what is the contribution from us to the region? Because trade is always a two-way street. We, while we are focusing on the benefits that a country could get, also it's important that we think of what the others could get. Could you explain what are the deliverables and where we stand in terms of Sri Lanka's work?

Speaker 1  07:19
So as I mentioned, Sri Lanka always has strongly believed in the benefits of regional cooperation, and that's why this initiative was taken in 1997 with Sri Lanka as one of the four countries coming forward. So everything that we do on our agenda dovetails fully with what Sri Lankan priorities are, and Sri Lanka benefits from the regional cooperation. Whether we are able to increase our intra-beam trade and investment, are we are able to make progress in blue economy, or we take some important initiatives in agriculture sector. Everything benefits all the member states, so that's the basis for our regional cooperation. That everything that we do is with participation of all the member states, and it must benefit all the member states. We take decisions by consensus, so every member state has a role to play in how the regional cooperation should unfold in future. Now, in science, technology, and innovation, there is one very significant initiative which has already been taken: is to set up a technology transfer facility in Colombo. This is one of its kind initiative in our region. I am not aware if any other regional organisation has taken such an initiative. The memorandum of association has already been approved by the member states, and as soon as the host country agreement is signed, the board of governors of this facility will start meeting. The board has already been constituted actually, and then will start functioning. So this will contribute in getting our member states access to technologies which are developed by our member states, and as you mentioned, many of our member states have made good progress in science and technology. So other member states will benefit from that. When it comes to health, this this is again a very important sector. And during COVID times, the need for regional cooperation was underlined, because, for example, if countries of region work together in situation of a pandemic, they can actually assist one another in controlling the spread of pandemic, in dealing with its. Aftermath, including sharing vaccines, sharing other therapeutics and diagnostic kits, so there is huge scope for cooperation. All our member states believe in one health, and there is strong focus on public health also. So already Thailand has taken the initiative of setting up a centre of excellence for tropical medicine and public health. Another important initiative in health sector has come from India to set up a centre of excellence in traditional medicine. Now, if we look at these two areas, they are very important for all our countries. Then, the World Bank has offered BIMSTEC a project based on a grant to have the capacity of our member state for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response enhanced. So Sri Lanka is poised to host as soon as it can the first meeting of BIMSC health ministers and health secretaries. So so far health sector has been led by experts, but now there is an opportunity to bring in the senior decision makers together on one platform and look at future health cooperation. So we expect that cooperation in health sector will expand further in future. Now, other important sector which Sri Lanka leads is human resource development, and there again, Sri Lanka itself has tremendous achievements in human resource development. The quality of human resource is very high when we compare to other countries in our region. You have excellent education system, skill development system. So again, Sri Lanka has an opportunity to lead in that sector, and the expert group has already prepared a plan of action, and there is a process to start implementing that plan of action. So Sri Lanka not only is leading in those areas, but it also has hosted meetings in other sectors, for example, tourism, culture, which is Nepal's responsibility. But Sri Lanka has come forward to host meetings in those sectors. So, because we are a small number of countries, so there is no rigidity. So any country can offer to host any meeting, and sometimes it does on a rotation basis in any sector. So, for example, Myanmar leads agriculture and food security sector, but the ministerial meeting for that sector was hosted by Nepal, so that's the beauty of the structure that it allows member states to take lead, but it's flexible enough for all the other member states to also contribute in their own way in success of that sector.

Dhananath Fernando  13:22
Excellent. Thank you very much, Your Excellency, for that elaborative explanation. Also, want to understand now how does the governments work? Like because we know, especially in the South Asian region, even in the beamstick region, with what we have seen recently, what went through in Bangladesh? What went through in Sri Lanka? With some political uncertainty, how do you keep the member states aligned with the same pillars? Because from government to government, their preferences may change. So, what is the with the charter? How can you make sure that the continuity takes place regardless of the political changes.

Speaker 1  14:03
So that's why it was important to have the secretariat, because then secretariats becomes the depository of all the initiatives taken by the member states. So even if there is a rotating chair, and the the country which is the chair wants to take initiatives, the secretariat will be able to follow upon those initiatives. Second point is that our agenda is always evolving, and we keep adding new areas of cooperation in case member states collectively decide that these are the areas of cooperation which are important for them. For example, only very recently, blue economy and mountain economy were added as new sectors of cooperation. And at Sri Lanka's initiative, we have decided to create a new expert. Group, which will be discussing fiscal and monetary policy. Now, matters related to finances were not on a beamsticks agenda, but with Sri Lanka's initiative, those matters are now on our agenda, and the expert group will meet and define its mandate, and then start working on cooperation in those areas. We are also looking at, in fact, bringing in gender dimension and mainstreaming women perspectives in entire gamut of cooperation under BIMSTEC. Again, that proposal has been shared with the member states, and they are looking at how to create that expert group separately. So, with very flexible process of creating new agenda items and adding them to existing agenda, even if the preferences change with change in the government, priorities change. We are able to take those priorities into account, and usually any government would like to prioritise its developmental imperatives, would like to realise all the sustainable development goals, and if you look at our agenda, it reflects almost all the sustainable development goals. So even if the governments change, they always come to the conclusion that the existing agenda is very useful for them. And if they feel very strongly about bringing in new issues, if all the other member states agree, then they are able to bring in the other issues. Let me highlight one more aspect of Bimstek that it's a non-political organisation. It has remained focused on engaging in cooperation on the ground, meaningful cooperation. So, even with the change in the political scenario of the member states, what we have witnessed that the governments have remained committed to engage in cooperation. Ministries of foreign affairs take the lead. There are national focal points in each member state in the ministries of foreign affairs. They are responsible for coordinating with all the other ministries and other organs of the government. So the secretariat deals directly only through ministries of foreign affairs. Of course, we have also communication with other ministries. But the preferred mode, preferred mode is through the ministries of foreign affairs. We have at the national focal points level BIMSTEC Permanent Working Committee. Then at the level of foreign secretaries, we have senior officials meeting. Then we have meeting at the foreign ministers level, and then the summits at the highest level. Also, in some sectors, we have separate meeting of the experts group, senior officials of that sector and ministers in that sector. So, for example, in agriculture, we have a separate agriculture ministers meeting. In tourism, in culture, we have separate ministers' meeting. We are going to start, as I mentioned earlier, with Sri Lanka hosting the first meeting of the health ministers, and there was also decision taken to host for the first time a meeting of the home ministers, our ministers who deal with interior matters, internal security matters. So that will be a new mechanism starting soon.

Dhananath Fernando  19:00
Thank you, Your Excellency. Now, especially when it comes to the, if you look at the countries which is in the BIMSTEC community, they all have quite high economic aspirations, and there was a conversation about a free trade agreement between the BIMSTEC countries, and especially on the integration on the services sector, where is I mean, what's the future of it, and also what benefits that you think that can bring it together, and would it also be the challenge has been especially on these trade agreements, the rules of origin compliance, especially sometimes the cost of compliance for small and medium trade, small and medium enterprises has been a sort of a question mark. First of all, to understand where is the FTA and also what is the future of it and what can be done on the other end. The rules of origin.

Speaker 1  20:01
So you have so eloquently highlighted the difficult issues in the negotiations and how different priorities and perspectives of the member states need to be reconciled. So the the framework agreement on FTA was signed in 2004, and then it a trade negotiation committee was set up, and then it had decided to create separate groups to engage in six different tracks of discussions. So one track was to discuss free trade in goods. The other was to discuss in services. Then investments, which are also priority. Then of course the customs cooperation, trade facilitation, and then the legal aspect, rules of origin, and other related matters. So these talks have been difficult. In some tracks, we have made very substantive progress, and we are looking forward to an early closure. Particularly, we have made progress in customs cooperation, and also in trade facilitation. In other areas, there is still differences, but those groups are meeting, and then trying to reach consensus. Intra-binstead trade is, of course, will be very important for all the member states. It's about 7% of total trade of our member states, so there is a huge potential. Also, we are trying to give priority now to business-to-business engagements. So that's why last year, Confederation of Indian industries hosted the first ever BIMSTEC Business Summit. The process to create a BIMSTEC Business Chamber is already underway. Bangladesh has prepared a concept note; it has circulated to all the member states, and we are also looking at the possibility of creating a forum for investment promotion agencies of our member states, because then they can facilitate intra-bimstick investment and also look at the possibility of promoting beamstick region as a destination for investment. So we are trying to create more opportunities for our business persons to engage, and also to bring the focus back on investments, and while making progress in FTA negotiations.

Dhananath Fernando  22:56
So, from the conversation, what we can expect as an early closure is mainly what you meant was in the customs integration is customs

Speaker 1  23:06
cooperation and trade facilitation. Trade facilitation. There the discussions have moved forward, and we are hopeful that some of the differences which are there would be overcome, and we might have an early closure there.

Dhananath Fernando  23:21
Correct. Also, Your Excellency, another pillar was on the connectivity, and we all are aware that how much different regions spend money on this connectivity, especially to integrate with the region, and especially on integration on multiple facets. So, what is there was a conversation about a master plan on connectivity. Where is it at the moment? Has it has it progressed or any other new items that has been added? Also, with the new geopolitical order, there's rather the order. There has been a lot of geopolitical events taking place around the world. Is there any indication on the connectivity front to our audience where it's moving forward?

Speaker 1  24:10
So, as you mentioned, connectivity is very important for our region, and that's very important element also for more cooperation in our region, the master plan, which has been prepared by ASEAN Development Bank for BIMSTEC member states, in very close consultation with all our member states, is based on the premise that all the member states will undertake whatever obligations they have in order to make sure that the countries are connected. So the model was that if for connectivity, say between two countries, they are required to build different routes or check post, they will. Work together to make sure that those steps are undertaken. We have made some progress there, and countries have engaged in creating the requisite infrastructure for surface connectivity, road connectivity, and in fact, the the master plan itself is being updated now to take into account that progress, and we had in this year two workshops convened by ADB with our member states to take their input for updating the master plan, and a draft of the updated master plan will be circulated soon to the member states, and then once they approve, that will become the basis for future work. When it comes to maritime connectivity, which is from Sri Lanka's perspective becomes very important, we have already made progress, and agreement on maritime transport cooperation was signed at the last summit. As soon as our member states ratify it, the agreement will come into force. While that process is underway, we have already started creating what we call joint shipping committee, which will look at enhancing the shipping links between our member states. We have started working on standard operating procedure for implementing the agreement, and there was recently in July a ports conclave was hosted by India Bimstick Ports Conclave, bringing ports in the Bimstick member states together, port authorities, to identify in what ways they can work together. So, with ports working together, cooperating with one another, maritime transport agreement being implemented. So, in maritime component of connectivity we would have made progress. Now simultaneously we have started negotiation of a motor vehicle agreement, which will then, with the infrastructure for land connectivity being created, this agreement will provide the the mechanisms for that connectivity to function, and one round of discussions had taken place, and we will soon have the next round of discussion to move forward on motor vehicle agreement. So we are making progress. What we see, all our member states give a very high priority to connectivity, and we we hope that we'll have more concrete progress in future in this area.

Dhananath Fernando  27:55
Could you also elaborate on the aviation front, Your Excellency, in terms of connectivity? Where is the future looks like, and what programmes are in place?

Speaker 1  28:06
I think that's one area of connectivity where there has been no specific discussions. Although master plan has some elements of air connectivity, as also it has the element of what we call capacity building on all the three domains of connectivity, but then as we have made progress in maritime connectivity and looking at surface connectivity, I am sure in air connectivity too will soon start a new process.

Dhananath Fernando  28:37
Thank you very much. So far we have discussed about the introduction about BIMSTEC at the same time we spoke about the role of Sri Lanka, especially what we play on on economic transfer and also on the healthcare front and also on the human resources front. And we also spoke about the maritime connectivity as well as on the road connectivity on the other front and also what we can expect in the free trade front or trade front, because most of the countries are quite connected by trade, and also we want to connect through trade because of the status of the economic status of the main members of BIMSTEC. Your Excellency, this video and this recording is also benefited by our Advocata insiders, who is a group who supports our content. For their benefit, I would like to ask a very few specific questions connected to your journey as as a diplomat and your career, especially when it comes to the international relationships, working with very difficult conditions because, as you mentioned, bringing these countries together, agreeing them because different cultures-it's not easy. Would you kindly share your story a bit for our Advocata insiders that will help them to understand the challenges and also if they are looking at a career. On international relationships, that would also help them to shape up their future. Could you kind of tell us a little bit about your story? Excellent. So that was a little bit of, I would say, not the insider views, but also what is going inside of a diplomat when you really want to provide a top-notch service to your country and the importance of serving your countries, what was explained by His Excellency Pandey. Just coming back to our conversation on beamstick and the regional cooperation, another area was the climate change and clean energy, and there was a conversation about sharing some of the important data like the pollution levels, air pollution levels, so on and so forth. Could you elaborate a bit more on why it is important and what special initiatives has been come out? Because climate change has become a new topic, not a new topic, but it has been there for some time. But compared to where we started about 30 years ago, 20, 30 years ago, now it has evolved a lot. What's the role of beamstick and where this climate integration takes place? So the

Speaker 1  31:07
adverse impact of climate change have become very obvious, and it's a huge challenge that our countries need to deal with, and they need to work together because we inhabit the same geographical space, Bay of Bengal, and a lot of climate change phenomena have regional impact. So, in three separate areas, we have been working together. One is environment and climate change, which was added to our agenda in 2022. Given its importance, already the expert group has met thrice, and we have been engaged in a number of activities for regional cooperation. We are separately working in mountain Economy dimensions, because you understand the importance of mountain ecosystem for our countries, particularly countries which have high-level mountains like India, Nepal, Bhutan, even Myanmar to some extent. Then we have been working together in disaster management. We have negotiated an action plan. We have been engaged in disaster management exercises, and there is a proposal to set up a BIMSTEC disaster management centre. Our countries do help one another in times of need, in times of disaster. But what we aim at is to have a BIMSTEC response to disaster in our region, a collective response by all the BIMSTEC member states. Energy is very important component, and that's why in energy we have focused largely on interconnection of our electricity grids, which has made progress. But the BIMSTEC Energy Centre, which has started working recently in Bengaluru, it has also brought the focus back on renewables and energy efficiency. So, in energy sector, our goal is to help member states in mitigation through disaster management. We are trying to deal with the aftermath of climate change. We also want to work in future on what we call resilient infrastructure, and that's why we have started exploring opportunities for working together with Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the UN Office on Disaster Risk Reduction. So, with these two international organisation, BIMSTEC is trying to work together so that we can manage disasters better, and we have resilient infrastructure to reduce the impact of disasters, which have become more frequent, as you know, and sometimes more intense also because of the climate change. I represented Bimstec in Abu Dhabi before coming to Colombo at the Congress of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and speaker after speaker spoke about the impact of climate change on the nature, on the environment, on our ecosystems, and the debate has moved to adaptation. Today, the the big challenge is how do we adapt to the climate change which is already underway. So it's no longer a theoretical discussion; it's a practical need for. To work together to deal with natural disasters.

Dhananath Fernando  35:04
Thank you, Your Excellency. Also, the if you look at the members of Beamstech recently, they have gone through sort of a difficult crisis, especially where you are based in Dhaka, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and even I mean Thailand and India is doing quite well, but they have been, especially country like Sri Lanka has gone through a crisis. So, what advantage that these countries have by being part of beamstick and basically contributing actively to overcome the crisis? Because quite selfish in this question, because we are we are Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, we are going to face the debt sustainability challenge. So, in that front, how important is this regional integration, and what benefits that a country would have, even if someone questions why regional integration, how it can help the immediate economic recovery as being part of Beamstack,

Speaker 1  36:01
so there are two aspects. Essentially, every country takes whatever steps it deems necessary to deal with the challenges that it has faced. So, whether it's a security challenge or a developmental challenge, all our member states have been taking steps nationally, but they know that they will benefit also from collective steps regionally. So that is why the need for regional cooperation, because then if the challenges are of similar nature. The solutions are also of similar nature. So, countries can help one another in developing capacity, in sharing knowledge and experience, and even undertaking projects together in order to deal with those challenges. So, there is no binary choice between either doing what is required nationally or working together regionally. Both are complementary and both are mutually reinforcing. So that is why in every part of the world you'd notice that there are regional organisations which are trying to bring countries together to engage in regional cooperation. If we look at the example of European Union, if you look at the example of African Union, or CARICOM, in our region, if you look at how the ASEAN has taken forward regional cooperation, so the need for regional cooperation is very well understood, and we all recognise that there is benefit from regional cooperation for all of us countries working together, and that is why there is a renewed commitment to make BIMSTEC successful. And as I had mentioned earlier, BIMSTEC is fortunate to have the political commitment of all its member states, irrespective of political developments within those countries. And since we are an organisation where we focus on developmental cooperation, technical and economic cooperation, so it in a way, political changes in our member states don't have any impact on the cooperation that we undertake on the ground.

Dhananath Fernando  38:34
Your Excellency, also now there are multiple regional integration conversations, like BRICS being one, there's ASEAN. There are multiple multilateral conversations that is going on. So, how unique is BIMSTEC in that context? Because ultimately, let's say for an example, a country like Thailand, they can focus on because ultimately they also have the limited resources. They are they are many. of Foreign Affairs they has to somehow you know allocate resources whether it's beams or ASEAN for an example. Of course, it each has like their own history and their different benefits. But how would you if you were to explain the uniqueness of Bimstick compared to? Of course, it's quite regionally subjective because what is in ASEAN is not sometimes comparable to BIMSTEC because the countries are different, the common cultures are different, the trading aspects are different. But when it comes to common things, that something comparable, why BIMSTEC is unique in your view?

Speaker 1  39:37
I think you have already answered part of the question that each region is very unique, and regional cooperation in each region has been driven by the needs of that region, and willingness of the countries to work together. But everywhere in every part of the world, the regional organisations have come to the fore. Because the need for regional cooperation has been strongly felt. Now, while there is a lot of talk about global multilateralism not functioning as much as it was expected to, there is a renewed emphasis and recognition that regional multilateralism can work better, because in a region you are dealing with a small number of countries, countries usually with the same level of development, with the same developmental imperatives, and building consensus becomes easier when you have a small number of countries. So seven BMST countries with similar developmental and security challenges, they are able to reach consensus on most of the proposals very easily. So that's advantage of a regional organisation with a small membership focused in a small region, bringing together countries of that region on a very shared and very realistic agenda. Uniqueness of BIMSTEC is threefold: one, our focus on technical and economic cooperation; second, our bringing together two regions of Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, and third, the unique mechanisms that we have put in place in order to deal with the evolving needs of the member states, and making sure that all the member states are equally engaged and contributing equally to the success of beamstick.

Dhananath Fernando  41:46
Also, coming to little hard questions, Your Excellency, there may be some critiques to mention that this process of beamstake is reasonably slow. And but you explained it why difficult it is to bring everyone together. I just want to understand: other countries have discussed this, or are there any acceleration mechanisms being taken for the critics to complain that the process is slow? Or can you compare it with other similar multilateral corporations? It may be ASEAN, it may be SAC, or it may be anything else to compare why the process is generally takes time. You explain some reasons before that, but I want to also get an answer from you as from the secretariat on the process on the acceleration of the beamstech commitments.

Speaker 1  42:40
So I I fully understand when people say ask this question that what BIMSTEC has contributed, what it has delivered, how much benefit has actually realised for the people, and these are very valid questions. Where we have made progress is that we have been able to create institutions, mechanisms in place, which can actually contribute in realising our goal of meaningful cooperation on the ground. We have actually we have been engaged in cooperation for the benefit of our members, but somehow Bimstek has not been very well known through media, and it has not been able to take its message to the people. But our member states themselves have been aware that we need to reform and revitalise beamstick, and that's why in 2024, an eminent persons group watch set up to make specific recommendations on what we need to change in beamstack. The group met six times in Dhaka, spread over 15 working days, it consulted with all the stakeholders, different communities, students, business communities, officials, and then it made recommendations. So the report was presented to our leaders, and the the simple direction from the leaders was that start the process of implementation, and the secretariat has been given the responsibility to monitor the progress in implementation, and I am I work in close consultation with the member states to make sure that those recommendations are implemented. We are very hopeful that with implementation of those measures to reform and revitalise BIMSTEC, we will be able to deliver benefits. To our people from regional cooperation in a much more efficient and effective way, but we are also trying to reach out to people to explain to them what we have already done, what we have achieved, what kind of institutions we have created. So you mentioned about, for example, climate change, Beamstech Centre for Weather and Climate, it engages in cooperation among the seven countries in better climate forecast. So the the centre is working together with meteorological department of all the member states, and depending on the need of the member states, the weather and climate forecasts are made tailored to that requirement of that member state. So this is an example of real cooperation taking place on the ground, but perhaps not much talked about, perhaps not so well known, I am happy with that. As long as we are able to work together on the ground, even if our work is not so well known, because the purpose is to work together on the ground and deliver results for our people, even if it's not so well known.

Dhananath Fernando  46:21
Your Excellency, my final question is on the blue economy. You mentioned broadly, but again, since Sri Lanka is an island, again being a little bit selfish again because it's related to us. But what is there in the blue economy in the beamstake cooperation, and at the same time, what, how countries like Sri Lanka could benefit from the beamstech cooperation and the projects that has been planned for the coming years.

Speaker 1  46:51
So, when it comes to blue economy, I think it's a very broad concept, and member states are in the process of defining the areas under blue economy where they would like to initiate cooperation, so the first meeting of expert group is expected to be convened soon. But even before the expert group meets, the process of consulting member states and identifying what are their priorities in blue economy, and how then we can set about delineating priorities for all our member states together in the expert group? That process is already underway. Consultation among the member states. So it was a sector which was added very recently to BIMSTEC agenda, but it's very important.

Dhananath Fernando  47:50
Your Excellency, your final thoughts. If I missed anything to ask, or if I, if you have anything else to educate the public and the community about Bimstec, this is your opportunity.

Speaker 1  48:03
So, what I would like to inform your audience is that we are also going to focus on more youth engagements, more engagement among our sports person, more engagement among our diplomats, more engagement through media. We are in the process of creating a platform for our parliamentarians. So there will be a lot of focus on what we call people-to-people engagement, because we belong to the same region with same historical and cultural experience, there is so much affinity among our people, and the for regional cooperation to progress, we need more regional exchanges with focus on women and youth, so integrating women perspectives in all the areas of cooperation in BIMSTEC is a very high priority, as also enhancing youth engagement with BIMSTEC, so that our youth are aware of what we are trying to do through beamsk. What are the benefits of regional cooperation? But also bringing youth of our region together. We are a region where a large part of our population is very young, and our future lies in their hands. They would be the future leaders. So we would like to bring our youth together from our member states, so that there are more youth exchanges. There is better understanding of what we are trying to do.

Dhananath Fernando  49:52
Thank you very much, Your Excellency Indra Pandey, for joining this conversation at Advocata Studio, and we deeply enjoyed the conversation. On the awareness created about BIMSTEC, and if you are not aware, I kindly invite you to go and check the BIMSTEC website, and they are also present in on Twitter, on Facebook, as well as on Instagram, so you can catch up the updates on BIMSTEC. It's a very very important agreement or a charter that Sri Lanka is in, because as we all know, as Advocata has been commented multiple times, and since our inception, that trade is the way forward, and for trade that we have to integrate with each other, and the Bay of Bengal region is very important because that's where the growing middle class is, and that's where we need to import and export to uplift the standard of living of all Sri Lankans. Not only for all Sri Lankans, but for all the other nations and the people of those respective countries. Because ultimately, their prosperity is our prosperity, and our prosperity is their prosperity. Because that's how the trade works. That's how the tourism works. That's how the exchange of technology works. That's how the shipping lights work. Because ultimately, everyone's prosperity is everyone's prosperity. So thank you very much for joining us. And again, please do not forget to subscribe Advocata Institute. And also we are available in Singala as Advocata Plus, so as as Advocata Kural in Tamil, and you can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, any social media platform. You should not be; it should not be difficult for you to find us. So please subscribe and follow. And also, if you haven't still considered to join as an Advocata Insider. This is the moment. The link will be in the description. Join as an Advocata Insider because you can get access to our expert analysis on currency, on vehicles, so on and so forth, which is relevant to the Sri Lankan economy. At the same time, you can help us to bring conversations like this to a larger audience to educate people about economic matters, Your Excellency, thank you very much again. It's such a

Speaker 1  52:06
pleasure talking to you and through you to your very large audience. I all the best to Advocata for the excellent work that you are doing, and I'm looking forward to more engagements in future.

Dhananath Fernando  52:19
Thank you very much, and wishing you and the team also all the very best. And thank you very much for watching us. We'll see you with a new video next week.


Transcribed by https://otter.ai