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Bimstec FMs fly in today Meet starts tomorrow

DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
The foreign ministers of the sevenmember Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) arrive in Dhaka today to attend the eighth ministerial meeting tomorrow.
The member states' entering the Free Trade Area (FTA), scheduled for July 1, 2006, will dominate the meet besides other issues of trade, poverty alleviation and terrorism.
The Bimstec members -Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand -- are firm to make the
Bimstec
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forum, launched on June 6, 1997,
more open and forward-looking.
The one-day ministerial meeting tomorrow will be preceded by the 10th Bimstec Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) represented by the foreign secretaries of the member states.
The foreign secretaries are now in the capital to begin their discussions today at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will inaugurate the ministerial meeting at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
The foreign ministers will hold informal talks in the morning before the working session to discuss issues on their agenda and also consider the SOM report.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, who will take over the chairmanship from Thailand, will preside over the meet.
Bhutanese Trade and Industry Minister Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed, Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win, Nepalese Foreign Affairs Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey and Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon will attend the meet. Sri Lankan Additional Foreign Secretary Karunatilaka Amunogama will lead his country's delegation.
"We won't have to wait long to see the FTA enforced in the Bimstec countries," Morshed told diplomatic correspondents, adding, the commerce ministers of the new economic grouping will meet in Dhaka early next year to sign the FTA.
Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) from the seven countries will meet for the final round of talks to resolve the issues of rules of origin, sensitive list, and dispute settlement in Kathmandu on December 21-27.