Coping with pandemic-related woes and different public well being points has turn out to be a crucial agenda for the member states of BIMSTEC over the past two years because the COVID-19 outbreak, a high official of the regional organisation mentioned on Saturday.

Sri Lanka has been recognized because the lead nation for coordinating and planning on public well being issues, he mentioned.

“COVID-19 made us realise that pandemics and well being per say is a vital agenda, and as a area, we have now to come back collectively.

“Earlier than COVID-19, we have been focusing extra on commerce, connectivity, vitality, electrical energy and such sectors, however not a lot on well being. Nevertheless, now we have now realised that well being can be a vital element,” Tenzin Lekphell, BIMSTEC secretary common, informed PTI.

He was talking right here on the sidelines of a two-day meet of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Financial Cooperation (BIMSTEC), which has Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand as member nations.

Lekphell mentioned the BIMSTEC’s 14 areas of cooperation have additionally been reformed by rationalising these into seven sectors and subsectors.

The principle sectors in focus are commerce and funding, know-how, human useful resource improvement, tourism, agriculture, vitality, and infrastructure and transportation.

Every member nation has been given the mandate to steer a sector, thereby constructing possession and guaranteeing higher native cooperation, he mentioned.

“BIMSTEC holds a lot promise as a platform for cooperation; our establishments, mechanisms and authorized frameworks are turning extra concrete. Ministerial conferences and senior officers’ conferences are additionally more and more getting extra interactive, partaking and common,” Lekphell mentioned.

He additionally acknowledged {that a} BIMSTEC ‘Power Centre’ will come up in Bengaluru, the place coverage issues will probably be mentioned and deliberated on, particularly these associated to vitality and electrical energy.

“This centre will probably be inaugurated in June,” Lekphell added.