Bangkok: India today (July 31, 2004) announced a slew of measures such as a ministerial conference on energy sharing experience in remote sensing and a tourism round table to strengthen cooperation among BIMST-EC countries which are expected to start negotiations for free trade agreement in September this year.

At the opening of the first ever BIMST-EC summit in Bangkok, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposed to host a ministerial conference on energy cooperation and set up a BIMST-EC centre on weather and climate in New Delhi which would help in sharing India's expertise in remote sensing for agriculture, environment and disaster management.

BIMST-EC comprises Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The aim of this grouping is to achieve regional free trade by 2017. Trade among the seven countries is currently just over $ seven billion.

To further explore the vast potential that exists for increasing tourism within the region, Singh said India would host a round table and workshop of tourism ministers, with the participation of tour operators, hotel representatives and other associated with the tourism industry with the objective of doubling tourism within BIMST-EC region in the next five years.

"We are also happy to announce 150 scholarships for next year under the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programme for BIMST-EC countries, in addition to 150 scholarships offered by India at the Ministerial meeting in Phuket in February this year," he said.