Nepal has decided to propose two dates for the fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

A Cabinet meeting on Sunday decided to float the proposal among the member states for holding the summit in Kathmandu. Nepal currently chairs the regional grouping.

August 30 and 31 or September 6 and 7 have been proposed for the Kathmandu summit, according to Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota.

The meeting also decided to form several subcommittees to make preparations for

the event.

In preparation for the summit, new Bimstec General Secretary Shahidul Islam visited Nepal recently and held meetings with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali and Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi. PM Oli is said to have told the visiting general secretary that the upcoming summit should assess Bimstec’s role in the past two decades and chart out a plan of action with time-bound targets.

Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand are the members of the grouping founded in 1997 with its secretariat in Dhaka. It works in 14 different areas of cooperation. The Kathmandu Summit could find more areas of help.

With Saarc rendered ineffective as a regional bloc, largely due to a longstanding rivalry between India and Pakistan, New Delhi has been giving more importance to Bimstec in recent years. Also the current chair of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Nepal is struggling to schedule the 19th Summit. Since the 2016 summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad was cancelled, Pakistan is making a fresh bid to host the Saarc meet.

But due to India’s stance against “terrorism sponsored by its arch-rival”, the date of the summit remains uncertain.

Cabinet endorses staff structure

Kathmandu: A meeting on Sunday endorsed the organisational structure and

positions of employees at the district administration, area administration, border administration, immigration and prison management offices. Considering a large number of students still out of school in Province 2, the government decided to run a second phase of enrolment campaign. According to Minister Baskota, the government also agreed in principle to draft a bill for protection of agriculture bio-diversity. The Cabinet decided to table the bill designed to set up an administrative court in the federal parliament. (PR)