The special session of Bimstec Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) Wednesday endorsed the "BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity" for approval and adoption by the 17th Bimstec Ministerial Meeting and Fifth Bimstec Summit.

The Fifth Bimstec Summit is expected to be held in Sri Lanka's Colombo this year.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen virtually took part in the SOM held in Colombo.

He led a four-member Bangladesh delegation of Additional Foreign Secretary Md Shamsul Haque (Saarc and Bimstec) and other officers.

Also read: Bimstec SG lauds Bangladesh’s socioeconomic development

The foreign secretaries and senior officials of all the seven Bimstec member states joined the meeting, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting finalised the revised draft "Provisional Agenda" and the "Joint Statement" of the 17th Bimstec Ministerial Meeting to be held virtually on Thursday.

Also, the meeting discussed the convening of the Fifth Bimstec Summit and finalised the draft declaration.

Bangladesh facilitated and supported the endorsement of a series of vital documents at the special session of the Bimstec SOM chaired by Admiral Professor Jayanath Colombage, foreign secretary of Sri Lanka.

Also read: Bimstec Master Plan: Dhaka for implementation of transport connectivity

The meeting considered and endorsed the reports of the third meeting of the Bimstec Transport Connectivity Working Group held virtually in India's New Delhi on December 8 last year and the fifth meeting of the BIMSTEC Network of Policy Think Tanks held virtually at the same city on December 21 last year.

In the forum, Foreign Secretary Masud said as Bimstec leads countries for trade, investment and development, "Bangladesh is committed to strengthening Bimstec cooperation in this important field."

"The relevant ministries and agencies of Bangladesh are ready to host all required meetings and events in this connection," the foreign secretary said.

To promote the areas of cooperation, Bangladesh proposed to host the 20th Meeting of the Bimstec Working Group on rules of origin and tourism-related meetings to be held virtually in Dhaka this year.

Also read: Bimstec offers huge prospects for economic cooperation: Dhaka

Masud said the implementation process of Bimstec cooperation in various sectors must be expedited on a priority basis to harness quick dividends for the peoples in the Bay of Bengal through the exploitation of the full potentials of this region.

The Covid-19 Pandemic waged an unprecedented global crisis posing multiple challenges for them and the Bimstec forum provides an excellent platform to combat the devastating impact of Covid-19 in the region, he added.