Background

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and they all are also the APG members. The 7-member BIMSTEC has grown out of the establishment of the 4-member BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand - Economic Cooperation) in June 1997 in Bangkok. BIMSTEC provides a unique link between South Asia and Southeast Asia bringing together 1.6 billion people - 24% of the world population, a combined GDP of over US$ 3.4 trillion.

BIMSTEC Cooperation area

The cooperation’s under BIMSTEC have expanded from original 6 to now 14 areas. BIMSTEC has fourteen priority sectors cover all areas of cooperation. They include the followings: Trade & Investment, Technology, Energy, Transport & Communication, Tourism, Fisheries, Agriculture, Cultural Cooperation, Environment and Disaster Management, Public Health, People-to-People Contract, Poverty Alleviation, Climate Changes and Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes.

BIMSTEC SG-CFT

BIMSTEC Sub-Group on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (BIMSTEC SGAML/CFT) is a forum, under the area of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes, for member countries to share their experiences and knowledge on the specific theme, as each of the meetings has a separate theme. The 10th meeting of BIMSTEC SGAML/CFT in Nepal focused on “Corruption and Bribery related to Money Laundering”, and the 11th meeting will be in Thailand. The meeting will focus on 3 topics as Illicit Flow of Funds, Terrorist Financing, and Tax evasion & Money Laundering. The topic has been selected by consulting various previous trends and typologies of Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorist Financing (TF) related to the said theme within this region. 

Current Status 

The updated status of the signed bilateral MoUs between the BIMSTEC Member States was shown in the following matrix:

Last Update: December 2018

Members and Contact lists

Please contact;

International Policy and Strategy Section,

International Cooperation Division,

The Anti-Money Laundering Office

E-mail:    ipss@amlo.go.th