Sri Lanka will host the next Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in early September this year, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told Secretary General M Shahidul Islam during a discussion, President Media Division said.
Sri Lanka is the Chair of BIMSTEC from 2018 to 2020. Though Sri Lanka has already hosted three Working Committee meetings, this will be the first one under the new Administration. The Senior Officials’ Meeting that was held from March 01-03. Here, BIMSTEC Charter was concluded as well as the long overdue rationalization of sectors.
Earlier, there were 14 such sectors. However, many of the areas such as climate and environment were overlapping and this created various issues. Taking all these into consideration, the number of sectors was reduced to seven. This will strengthen the institutional mechanisms of BIMSTEC.
Under the rationalizing of the sector, Sri Lanka will be the lead country for Science, Technology and Innovation. Bangladesh will lead Trade and Investment, Bhutan on Environment and Climate Change, Myanmar on Agriculture and Food Security, India on Security, Napal on People-to-People Contact and Thailand on Connectivity.
A Thai woman walking topless in Arugam Bay town has been arrested by the Police.
The UK government has unveiled a package of reforms to simplify imports from developing countries which allows for more garments manufactured in Sri Lanka to enter the UK tariff-free.
The Cabinet has approved a proposal for Sri Lankans overseas to apply for their passports through an online system via the Lankan diplomatic missions.
Villagers in Nirmalapura, Daluwa, Norochcholai today staged a protest over an incident where a group of Navy officials and sailors had assaulted a resident in the area over night, Police said.
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