Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-05-16

Hosting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Ministerial Meeting on Poverty Alleviation in Sri Lanka in 2017

- The BIMSTEC organization which was established in the year 1997 with the collaboration of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka, conducts its functions pertaining to the Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. This organization carries out a major role in regard to poverty alleviation and it has held two Ministerial Meetings in this regard, one in the year 2008 in the Dhaka City in Bangladesh and the other in the year 2013 at Kathmandu in Nepal. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. S.B. Dissanayake, the Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare, to host the third Ministerial Meeting of the BIMSTEC in Sri Lanka, was approved by the Cabinet.