Published: 11:23 PM, 16 September 2026
BIMSTEC: Bangladesh Should Seize the Opportunity
As Bangladesh assumes the BIMSTEC chairmanship, Dhaka must transform regional geography into economic leverage, not wait for other collaborative frameworks. Policymakers, interested stakeholders, and people across the country are now debating Bangladesh’s participation in the BRICS summit. Bangladesh’s absence from the 2026 BRICS summit has confused, but the more important fact is that Dhaka was not invited as a BRICS candidate but as the chair of BIMSTEC. The difference is significant. Although countries like China and others have nominally supported Bangladesh's aspirations to become a member of BRICS, real membership remains distant and depends on great-power politics. In contrast, Bangladesh may finally take advantage of BIMSTEC, which is immediate, actionable, and rooted in geography that cannot be altered. Membership alone does not deliver economic success. Joining an alliance creates an opportunity, not an outcome. Investment, trade, and development flow not from membership itself but from how strategically and proactively a country leverages its positions. International organizations should not be treated as symbols of prestige; they must be used as instruments of economic diplomacy and national interest.
The need for the economic case is pressing. Due to weak exports, poor private investment, and chronic energy shortages, the Asian Development Bank has lowered its growth projections for Bangladesh to 3.7 percent for FY2026 and 4.5 percent for FY2027. Inflation stubbornly holds at 9 percent. High energy prices are weighing on export-oriented manufacturing, which is needed to drive recovery. It is not a problem that can be solved by BRICS membership, even if it were to be attained in the next few days. They need solutions at the regional level: lower energy costs from their neighbours, better logistics and logistics services provided by the shared infrastructure, as well as a larger market within a trading bloc that shares Bangladesh's geography.
BIMSTEC institutional momentum has quietly accelerated. In April 2025, the member states concluded an agreement on cooperation in maritime transport for greater cargo and passenger transport between the countries within the Bay of Bengal. A Memorandum of Understanding on interconnection is already available, and Bangladesh has proposed a BIMSTEC solar power grid, which will enable the sale of electricity between the member countries. The experts meeting in September 2026 recommended shifting from bilateral electricity trade to multilateral connectivity with an emphasis that the regional power trade could enhance system reliability and sharing of resources. These are not empty statements, they are frameworks awaiting implementation.
Bangladesh is in a strong position to be leading the way in that implementation. With the chairmanship, Dhaka will be running the secretariat and the agenda of the BIMSTEC. The secretariat is being strengthened, with seven directors instead of three, and Bangladesh's proposal for strengthening the secretariat accepted by all the members. This presents a special opportunity for Bangladesh to influence the course and direction of BIMSTEC rather than merely participate in it.
The infrastructure work is getting done. The Matarbari Deep Sea Port will be operational by 2029 and have a capacity of 8,200 TEUs and a draft of 14.5 meters, twice as big as the Chattogram port's 2,500 TEU capacity and draft. The private sector has already placed its bets on Bangladesh's maritime future with CMA CGM, a global shipping giant, interested in running terminals at Matarbari and the Bay Terminal. When fully operational, Matarbari will not only act as a transshipment hub for Bangladesh, but also for landlocked members of BIMSTEC (Nepal, Bhutan, and potentially the northeast of India) turning Bangladesh into a gateway for the region.
The energy requirement is also immediate. The manufacturing industry is unable to compete with the artificially raised cost of energy in Bangladesh due to imports of fossil fuels. Cross-Border Electricity Trade is a structural solution within BIMSTEC, for example, hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan, solar energy from India and gas from Myanmar. The architecture is provided by the grid interconnection framework. All that's left is political will to implement it. Bangladesh, as Chair, must call a special energy ministers' meeting in its first few months, and set a clear deadline to conduct a trial of cross-border electricity trading within 12 -18 months.
The process of trade liberalization under BIMSTEC FTA has been slow but Bangladesh's foreign affairs minister has rightly called for “tangible and result-oriented cooperation through effective implementation”. Bangladesh should leverage its chairmanship to negotiate for an early harvest agreement of specific sectors like textile, pharmaceutical and agriculture products instead of waiting for a comprehensive agreement which may take years. Intra-regional trade among BIMSTEC countries is far below the potential; even a modest cut in tariff and non-tariff barriers would help open up markets for Bangladeshi manufacturers whose appetite for products is increasingly met with uncertainty in the traditional markets.
The geopolitical picture does not contradict the logic. The Chinese Government has promised to support Bangladesh's aspirations for BRICS and SCO, and invested in Mongla Port and Chattogram industrial zone. Such relationships are worthwhile and should be sought. However, these cannot replace a viable economy in their immediate neighborhood in Bangladesh. BIMSTEC isn't a substitute for BRICS, it's where it belongs. It is the platform through which Bangladesh can build the Bay of Bengal economic ecosystem manufacturing, logistics, energy, and connectivity that BRICS membership alone would never deliver. The economic path being taken by Bangladesh is not stable. Growth is slowing down, inflation is reducing purchasing power and the external environment is uncertain. The road to resilience is via regional integration. In Asia, Bangladesh, as chair, is in a position to lead. What it now requires is a certain strategic sense to understand that geography is not destiny, it is leverage practiced.
Bangladesh's future will not be created in far-off capitals, it will be created in the Bay of Bengal. The BRICS and SCO, as well as the great-power engagements, are not substitutes, but supplements. The real work is the nitty-gritty of establishing new grid connections, coordinating customs lines, dredging channels, and negotiating tariff schedules. As Bangladesh assumes the chairmanship of BIMSTEC, success should be measured in the number of ships that use Matarbari, the megawatts that cross the borders and the trucks that cross at Benapole and Tamabil. Geography is our own. The moment is now. The next chapter will be defined by bold action, not borrowed relevance.
Imran Hossain teaches Business Administration in Bangladesh
Army International University of
Science and Technology, Cumilla.
