Indo-Myanmar trade unbalanced

Imphal, Febuary 11: There is great imbalance in the export and import ratio of the trade being carrying out between India and Myanmar under the Indo-Myanmar Border Trade Agreement, an official of the State Commerce and Industries Department disclosed. The border trade between the two neighboring countries was established under an agreement signed some five years ago. Altogether 22 items can be imported from Myanmar but the items that can be exported are many and because of this imbalance the ongoing trade is not successful, the official said. The State Government had already submitted a proposal to the Union Ministry of Commerce for adding 11 more import items, besides facilitating Letter of Credit (LoC) system and hotline in the banks concerned and direct postal exchange facilities between the two countries. Reminders of the proposal have also been sent at least 4/5 times but there has no response from the Ministry so far, he rued. On the works being taken up by the Centre for the development of border trade between the two countries, he informed that Centre had released a sum of Rs 1 crore from various infrastructural facilities at Moreh. These included the marketing complex and the weight bridge work for which have been completed and construction of a warehouse and a conference hall which are currently being constructed, he said. However, for developing the border trade between the two countries to its fullest, the official suggested that traders should be given the Open General Licence (OGL) and allowed them to carry on their business on the legalized items without any more complexity.