South Asia to set up food bank

South and Southeast Asian countries agreed yesterday to create a food bank to combat shortages following natural disasters, a senior official said.

Bangladesh, which made the proposal at a two-day meeting of ministers and senior officials on easing poverty, was asked to come up with details at the next ministerial meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, early next year.

"All the member countries of the Bay of Bengal 1 Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), unanimously agreed to create the food bank soon," Mirza Azizul Islam, Bangladesh adviser (minister) for finance and planning told a news conference. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand are members of the BIMSTEC.

"The member countries may contribute in kind or cash equally or according to their strength in the proposed food bank," a senior official said. "But the modalities will be fixed in the next ministerial meeting early 2009," Azizul said.

Thomson Reuters