India today offered to fund and conduct a feasibility study to develop an area near Myanmar’s Dawei for deep sea port as foreign ministers from seven Asian nations, including Yashwant Sinha, identified six priority areas to be the focus of future projects by the Bimstec economic club. Foreign ministers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand ended a two-day deliberation in the Thai island, promising to meet for their first summit in July in Bangkok. A joint ministerial statement issued at the end of the meeting said the group ‘‘encouraged continued cooperation and implementation of projects in six priority sectors of trade and investment, technology, energy, transportation and communications, tourism and fisheries’’. The leaders said special emphasis should be placed on hydrocarbon and hydropower potential and people-to-people contact in the region. Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sararathirai said India had offered to finance and conduct a feasibility study for the Dawei Area Project. The Dawei area, about 300 km from Bangkok and situated on Myanmar’s southwest coast, is called Yon Bin. Myanmar is keen to have this area as a hub connecting South Asia and South East Asia. The seven-member Bimstec grouping did not want many projects but enough projects for the member countries to work on and get quick results, Thai Foreign Minister said. The Bimstec, which was set up in 1997, will hold its first-ever summit on July 31. Senior ministers from the grouping will meet on July 30, he added. —(PTI)
