Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a sub-regional grouping combining some geographically contiguous South Asian and ASEAN countries in the Bay of Bengal. RIS, in consultation with the Institute for Policy Studies, Colombo; International Institute for Trade and Development, Bangkok; and Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, prepared the study Future Directions of BIMSTEC: Towards a Bay of Bengal Economic Community (BoBEC), as per the mandate provided by the Fourth BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting held in Yangon on December 21, 2001. RIS study presents some thoughts on the future directions of the Grouping.

The RIS Report recommends that the grouping should set its goal to form a Bay of Bengal Economic Community by the year 2020. A BIMSTEC Fund for Regional Projects should also be established for further strengthening of business links. It makes a number of recommendations for mutual cooperation in transport infrastructure. The energy demand-supply sectors in BIMSTEC countries offer a potential for regional resource cooperation, which could go beyond export-import trade relations and link the region in a Bay of Bengal Energy Community. There could also be fruitful cooperation between the BIMSTEC countries in technology management and capability building, in dealing with the digital divide, among other areas. Cooperation should also be promoted in tourism, fisheries, auto, SMEs and other sectors.

An early version of the study was circulated at the BIMSTEC Ministerial Meetings held in Phuket, Thailand on February 7-8, 2004. A Policy Brief (#12) was also issued based on the study.