President Rajapaksa who left the island to attend the BIMSTEC Summit reaches Myanmar. The President is due to address the Conference tomorrow.
The President left the island this morning to attend the BIMSTEC Summit which will commence in Nay Pyi Taw tomoirrow. The President was accorded a warm welcome on his arrival at the Nay Pyi Taw Airport. Labour Minister of Myanmar U Ayi Mint, Deputy Ministers U Tin Wuwin and U Tant Kyo, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Myanmar H.R. Piyasiri and Myanmar’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka U Min Theen San joined in welcoming the President at the Airport. Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris and Foreign Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne who are in Myanmar to attend the BIMSTEC Ministerial meeting were also present at the Airport.
The Presidential Media Unit said that President Rajapaksa and his entourage are due to participate in a banquet to be hosted by Myanmar President U Thein Sein at the Myanmar International Conference Centre tonight. President Rajapaksa will be addressing the third BIMSTEC Conference tomorrow.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation or BIMSTEC is a regional grouping of seven South and South East Asian countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The seven-country forum aims at maintaining and promoting beneficial cooperation among members, especially in identified priority sectors such as trade and investment, technology, energy, tourism and agriculture. The grouping aims to achieve its own free trade area by the year 2017.
Sri Lanka has been associated with BIMSTEC from its inception and is the lead country for the technology sector. As agreed at the second Summit in New Delhi, Sri Lanka is now working to set up a BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility in the country. The first BIMSTEC Summit was held in Bangkok in Thailand in 2004 while India hosted the second Conference in New Delhi in 2008.
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