Jairam Ramesh visits Manipur to promote international trade

Imphal, Sep 29 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh is on a three-day visit to Manipur to discuss various trading issues and inspect the border trade activities at Moreh.

Officials said the minister left for the border town Moreh by road today to inspect the border trade activities.

Moreh is the trading center between India and Myanmar and 22 items were allowed to be exchanged on a barter basis between the two countries, officials said.

The government is planning to convert Moreh into an international trading center and the central government is planning to extend rail head up to Moreh.

Officials said the state government has mooted the idea of increasing the number of trading items as the border was porous and goods worth crores of rupees were transacted every day legally and illegally. The tribals living in the border areas were allowed to move freely in each others territory without documents, officials said.

Official transaction was difficult due to fluctuating rate of Myanmar Kyat which varies drastically from time to time, officials added.

The United Bank of India has opened a bank in the town and the government was planning to augment the banking capacity in the area.

The Union Minister had several rounds of discussions with state government officials. However, the details were not divulged yet.

Meanwhile, security from Imphal to Moreh, which is about 110 km, was tightened after suspected militants kidnapped five state government officials on Wednesday when they went there to make an assessment of the road condition in view of the visit of the minister.

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