DHAKA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The first Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) ministerial meeting on poverty alleviation held in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka Wednesday reached consensus to fight poverty collectively.

    The meeting adopted an eight-point resolution, calling for a plan to deal with the climate change, a search for the possibility of establishing a food bank for the food security of the region and work for flood control.

    The 7-nation sub-regional group BIMSTEC, initiated to connect South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

    Bangladesh caretaker government Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed at a briefing said the meeting stressed strengthening cooperation on poverty reduction and making the group more effective to face the challenges triggered by dramatic increase of prices of oil, food and agricultural input.

    Foreign ministers of the seven countries during the meeting exchanged their experiences in alleviating poverty.

    BIMSTEC, formed in June 1997 in Bangkok, covers 13 priority sectors including counter terrorism and transitional crimes, trade and investment, transport and communications and poverty alleviation.

    BIMSTEC brings together about 1.4 billion people and has a potential for a trade volume to the tune of 50 billion to 60 billion U.S. dollars annually.