He emphasised that Bangladesh has made substantial investment in creating infrastructure for power trade with India and is in discussions with Nepal and Bhutan for trilateral power trade.

While addressing the inaugural session of a two-day conference on ‘Enhancing Energy Cooperation in the Bimstec Region’ at the Bimstec Secretariat here, Dr Tawfiq also mentioned about Bangladesh’s eagerness to expand energy trade with Myanmar.

Government officials, diplomats, energy experts and think tanks from Bimstec Member States attended the conference.

The speakers emphasized the need to harmonize the operational, legal and regulatory frameworks of the Bimstec countries for implementing an interconnected regional electricity grid.  

Emphasising the importance of increased regional cooperation in the energy sector in the region, Bimstec Secretary General Ambassador M Shahidul Islam said the region is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and it is heavily dependent on energy imports.

“Bimstec wants to promote energy security in the region by promoting power trade and development of clean energy resources such as hydropower and renewable energy,” he said.

USAID Mission Director to Bangladesh Derrick S Brown said USAID is fortunate to partner with Bimstec, to address some of the common critical issues, such as to create an enabling environment that supports cross-border power trade, establishment of a power market, and create consensus and support from the key decision-makers and stakeholders.

Bimstec, a regional organisation with its permanent Secretariat in Dhaka, brings together seven countries from South and Southeast Asia -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar -- to promote regional cooperation for rapid economic development.

In 2018, Bimstec concluded a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the ‘Bimstec Grid Interconnection’ to facilitate electricity trade among member countries through a region-wide grid to achieve energy sufficiency.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) Secretariat in collaboration with USAID-funded programme titled South Asian Regional Initiative for Energy Integration (SARI/EI) is hosting the two-day conference on enhancing energy cooperation.