BIMSTEC culture minister meet in Bhutan

Paro, May 23: Ministers of culture and culture secretaries of the BIMSTEC member countries- Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand- started discussion on cultural exchange in their first ministerial meeting in the Bhutanese trade capital of Paro on Tuesday. Nepal is not attending.

The meeting will run through May 25.

The leaders will discuss on how the member countries can work together to enhance and preserve cultural heritage of the region and on how the cooperation could be used to reduce poverty.

The BIMSTEC culture collaboration is expected to pave way for income and employment generation through promotion of cultural identity of the region. BIMSTEC region has most diverse cultural differences in the world, be it in climate, race, culture, language and ethnicity.

BIMSTEC culture industries would cover not only arts and crafts and traditional culture, but also a wide range of other significant areas such as fashion, architecture, filmmaking, publications, graphics, and multi-media productions, a pamphlet published on the eve of the meeting states. The latter would include creative activities in the service sectors like advertising, television, radio, films and other aspects of entertainment, it reads.

Bhutan proposed culture to be one of the areas of BIMSTEC cooperation during the Thailand summit in 2004. Then it was decided that Bhutan would be the BIMSTEC’s lead country in the area of cultural cooperation. Bhutan News Service/Sangey Ondrey