The economic grouping set up in June 1997 comprises Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan will open the meeting at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

The two-day foreign secretary level meeting will discuss the Bimstec free trade area (FTA) as the negotiations are expected to complete by December for utilising potentials in trade and investment in the Bimstec region.

The six priority sectors are trade and investment, technology, tourism, transport and communication, energy and fisheries. It will also discuss follow up of the decisions of the first Bimstec summit held in Bangkok last July.

Bangladesh is the lead country for trade and investment, India for transport, communication and tourism, Myanmar for energy, Sri Lanka for technology and Thailand for fisheries. Thailand will also place a report on trade negotiation consultation on FTA.

A senior official of the foreign ministry told the news agency the Bimstec meeting will also focus on the progress of joint working group meetings on counter-terrorism and transnational crimes.

At the Bangkok summit, the Bimstec leaders agreed to coordinate efforts to combat terrorism in the region through exchange of intelligence information and other concrete measures of cooperation. The joint working group met in New Delhi on December 9-10 last year.

The meeting will also discuss people-to-people contact and issuance of travel cards for businessmen in the Bimstec region.

A free trade area agreement was signed last February and the agreement covers trade, services and investment. Negotiations are progressing well on specific issues. The agreement will come into force from July 2006.

Last night, the Bimstec officials had informal consultations over a working dinner at the State Guesthouse, Padma.

Foreign Secretary Hemayet-uddin will formally take over the chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sector Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) from Thailand for next one year.

The foreign ministry official said the meeting will discuss new membership of the eight-year-old forum. Nepal and Bhutan joined the grouping last year at the foreign minister level meeting held at Phuket, Thailand.