Commerce Food Minister Kingsley T. Wickremaratne represented Sri Lanka at a Ministerial retreat held in Bangkok on 6th and 7th August where five ministers from five countries, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, went into a two-day ‘brain-storming’ session which was to be a precursor to the annual Ministerial meeting to be held in Dhaka in September.

At this retreat the five ministers decided that they should aim and strive to develop into a free-trade arrangement and focus on activities that facilitate trade, investment and promote technical co-operation among member countries.

The activities of these ministers will be designed to form a bridge, linking ASEAN and SAARC, and is particularly important in the context of the vision of President Kumara-tunga following her assuming the leadership of SAARC at the 10th summit held in Colombo recently, that SAARC should establish formal links and create corridors to other trading blocks for economic co-operation, , a commerce ministry news release said.

The ministers attending the retreat were agreed that they should initially begin co-operation efforts in six priority areas, trade and investment, technology, transportation and communication, energy, tourism and fisheries, and gradually extend to other areas as well, the release said.

For a start, trade and investment would be the responsibility of Bangladesh. India, Thailand and Myanmar would handle technology, Transportation and communication, and energy respectively. Sri Lanka would be responsible for the tourism and fisheries sectors, the release said.

The five commerce ministers at the ministerial retreat at a discussion. From left are Tofail Ahamad (Bangladesh) Ramakrishna Hegde (India), Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi (Thailand) Brig. Gen. D. O. Abel (Myanmar) and Kingsley T. Wickramaratne (Sri Lanka).