Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday said that climate change is not only an environmental issue but also a develop* mental issue, as it threatens human security in the areas of food, energy and livelihood security.

"Climate change poses critical challenges to all of us. It also poses existential challenges such as climate change-induced large scale displacement," she said while addressing the 12th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperat'ion (Bimstec)

Ministerial Meeting in Nay Pyi lbw, Myanmar.

The inclusion of climate change as the 14th priority area of cooperation under Bimstecis very heartening and Bangladesh is happy to take the responsibility of lead country in this critically important area, said the foreign minister.

Dipu Moni also said Bimstec provides a unique platform to deepen and strengthen cooperation for die economic wellbeing of peoples of member nations.

Reiterating Bangladesh's deep and unflinching commitment to the goals and objectives of Bimstec, she said tiiat global

recession, food and energy crisis and climate change challenges pose serious impediments to our developmental aspirations.

Information and communication technology has brought about fundamental changes in the way of conducting lives, she said. "Development and progress in this area has been phenomenal, although the diffusion of ICT has been uneven. Greater collaboration amongst member states would facilitate bridging the digital divide and building a solid information superhighway in this region."

Terming agriculture a fundamental instalment for sustain-

able development and poverty reduction, Dipu Moni said growth in other sectors and the overall economy significantly depends on the performance of agriculture.

"Agriculture and allied sector cooperation, therefore, deserves to get the active attention as should the cooperation in post-harvest agricultural product management mechanism."

The foreign minister said human trafficking has been the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world with total annual revenue for trafficking in persons estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion.

"Illegal migration is increasingly linked to organised criminal groups connected to other transnational criminal networks involved in narcotics, arms trafficking and money laundering," she told the meeting.

"It is time to develop mechanisms to enhancing cooperation in combating human trafficking in the region, which in turn would have a positive impact on the complex nexus of transnational criminal activities."

Terming the energy sector a key ingredient of socioeconomic development, Dipu Moni said, "Our region is one of the fastest growing regions in the world, which thus puts energy at the very heart of the development process. We have encouraging resource potential and tremendous scope for energy cooperation."