BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement to prove a game-changer for regional cooperation: CUTS International

New Delhi, Mar 1 (KNN) The Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal Motor Vehicles Agreement will prove to be a gamer-changer for regional cooperation in South Asia, CUTS International said in a release.

CUTS further raised that for the effective implementation of the BBIN MV Agreement, it needs a number of enablers.

The organization also laid stress on the importance of BBIN MV Agreement at National Policy Dialogue on “Enabling and Inclusive Policy and Political Economy Discourse for Trade, Transport and Transit Facilitation in and among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal – Facilitating Implementation and Stakeholder Buy-in in the Bay of Bengal Region” which was held in New Delhi on 27th February, 2018.

With support from the UK’s Department for International Development and the US State Department, CUTS International is implementing this multi-country, multi-year project, looking at local level infrastructure needs and development implications of trade, transport and transit connectivity with a focus on possible implementation challenges to the BBIN MV.

The meeting highlighted a number of significant initiatives contributing towards better connectivity and smooth movement of people and cargo.

It emphasized on ensuring better connectivity by addressing bottlenecks in physical infrastructure and procedural barriers, generating political consensus for connectivity initiatives, and why they should be looked at from gender and other dimensions of social inclusiveness for a better local buy-in.

Sandeep Kumar, Commissioner (Customs & Export Promotion), Central Board of Excise & Customs, Government of India, stressed that with the help of the Electronic Cargo Tracking System the BBIN MVA will become a successful model for regional cooperation and also shed light on other important initiatives such as rail connectivity between India and Bangladesh, development of Border Haats.

Hardeep Batra, Additional Commissioner, WCO (World Customs Organisation) Cell in the Central Board of Excise & Customs underlined the importance of the Revised Kyoto Convention on trade facilitation and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

The BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement was signed in June 2016 and the protocols for smooth movement of both passenger and cargo vehicles are being developed. While other three countries have finalized and settled the protocols for the movement of passengers, Bhutan, is yet to approve it. Protocol for the movement of cargo vehicles have also been drafted and will be finalized and implemented soon.

Prithviraj Nath, Associate Director of CUTS presented the key findings of the study and stressed on the political nuances that is creating challenges towards the implementation of the BBIN MVA and also suggested a model of better local buy-in to address these issues.

According to Duncan Overfield, Senior Regional Economic Adviser and Deputy Head, Asia Regional Team of the UK’s Department for International Development, the success of the BBIN MVA will depend on the level of private sector engagement and institutional arrangements for regional cooperation.