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The Meeting of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Senior Officials was held on 8-9 December 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Mr. Dhani Ram Sharma, joint secretary and chief, International Economic Relations Division (IERD), Ministry of Finance, Government of Nepal, chaired the meeting, and Ms. Sona Shrestha, deputy director general, South Asia Department, Asian Development Bank, acted as cochair. The meeting was moderated by the SASEC secretariat.

Key outcomes of the meeting include the following:  

1. Endorsement and Implementation of SASEC Strategies 2035 for Transport, Trade Facilitation, Energy Operational Priorities, and the SASEC Customs Development Framework 2035
2. Endorsement of decisions taken in the SASEC Working Groups of Transport, Trade Facilitation and Energy
3. Senior Officials noted the draft Economic Corridor Development (ECD) Strategic Framework and endorsed the phased, building-block, country-owned approach and a new institutional mechanism for ECD operational priority.
4. Confirmation that Highly Facilitated Trade Corridors (HFTC) and Comprehensive Trade Gateway Ecosystem Development (CTGED) will be integrated into the ECD Operational Priority as a key building block. Countries also endorsed the completed HFTC route studies, supported new route proposals, and approved the multi‑agency Action Plan.
5. Endorsement of tourism as an important building block of economic corridor development (ECD) under SASEC Program. Senior officials also expressed support for the decisions taken in the SASEC Tourism Knowledge Workshop
6. Endorsement of digital transformation as a critical driver across Transport, Trade Facilitation, Energy, and ECD operational priorities—extending to Tourism and Food Ecosystems—while recognizing their interconnectedness and alignment with core DPIs. Taken together under ECD, these priorities serve as a foundational building block to maximize the impact of ongoing investments in physical infrastructure and amplify shared benefits. A Digital Transformation 2035 Approach Paper for SASEC Program as a building block under ECD will be circulated for feedback of countries.
7. SASEC partner countries emphasized food security, food safety, food trade, and resilient supply and value chains, and strengthened technical capacity, as core priorities for regional cooperation under the SASEC ECD Operational Priority. The SOM endorsed the proposed way forward. In addition, the SOM supported reforms under  SPS/TBT. The SASEC Food Systems Development Framework 2035 will be circulated for the countries' comments.
8. Endorsement of developing the supply chain and value chain for electrical equipment supporting electrical grid systems as a vital component of building blocks of ECD
9. Endorsement of the Action Plan for SASEC Initiatives (APSI) 2025–2027 and endorsement of the need to realign the next APSI cycle (2026–2028) to the SASEC Strategy 2035 and incorporate decisions from all Working Groups.
10. SASEC member countries emphasized scaling up renewable energy trade, regional transmission connectivity, electrical equipment value chains, and green fuels, including early operationalization of the SASEC Green Finance Facility in 2026. 
11. Agreement to strengthen congruence of Country Programming with APSI and SASEC Strategy 2035 in both knowledge work and projects
12. Senior Officials noted "good practices" session was relevant to the SASEC program and welcomed its inclusion in future SOMs
13. Senior Officials highlighted the ambitious agenda endorsed by SASEC partner countries and stressed the need for adequate resources to match this ambition.
14. Some member countries requested for a quarterly bulletin update on the SASEC Program
15. Sri Lanka was confirmed to be the host of SASEC meetings in 2026.

Senior officials from the SASEC countries' external and foreign affairs ministries, heads of delegations for the SASEC technical working groups, and ADB delegation members attended the meeting. SASEC countries comprise Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.