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MoU push to Myanmar trade
March 5, 2007: Guwahati, Three trade associations signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last evening to boost trade ties between the northeastern states and Myanmar through increasing participation of the business community.
The MoU was signed here by the Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam, the Indo-Myanmar Border Traders’ Union of Manipur and the Union of Myanmar Border Trade Chamber of Commerce, Myanmar.
The three trade bodies decided to work in tandem to give an impetus to bilateral trade between Northeast India and Myanmar by encouraging participation of more traders.
The members also reportedly agreed to hold a meeting in Moreh within three months to exchange views on border trade.
The organisations signed the MoU after a threadbare discussion on the present trade prospects between the two countries.
A 31-member business delegation from Myanmar had arrived in Guwahati on Friday on a three-day visit to the state.
The delegation comprising senior officials and heads of the companies visited tea gardens, textile units herbal medicinal plants, gardens and fishery units.
The Indo-Myanmar trade pact was signed in 1994 and it was made operational in 1995. The governments of the two countries have set a target of $ 1 billion trade in 2006-07, but both the countries are likely to end up trading $ 650 million worth of goods by the end of this fiscal against $570 million in 2005-06.
This was stated in a study on Indo-Myanmar trade carried out by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
The study said to raise the volume of trade, the number of items, currently restricted to 22 in the barter and exchange mechanism, needed to be increased.
Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh had recently stated that Rs 70 crore would be spent on developing an integrated checkpost at Moreh to manage both trade cargo and passenger movement across the border and provide modern infrastructure facilities and better connectivity.
It will to a large extent facilitate regional trade and also help local communities living in the vicinity of border towns through which most of the trade takes place.
The only functional land customs station is at Moreh through which trade across the land route along the 1,600 km of the Indo-Myanmar border takes place.
The Moreh project, which is being executed by the public sector company, RITES, will be launched shortly and completed in the next year and a half.
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