GUWAHATI, June 29 – In a bid to give a boost to trade, the Commerce Ministry has released Rs 12.25 crore for NE. The funds have been granted for development of border trade points and the existing infrastructure. Assam has been allotted Rs 5 crore, Rs 2.25 crore has gone to Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 2 crore to Meghalaya, while Nagaland and Manipur have been granted Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively.
The joint director of Foreign Trade, MK Mero, told this correspondent that the Commerce Ministry has been laying stress on infrastructure development in the North-east in order to increase the volume of trade with the neighbouring countries. “Despite vast potential of trade, the North east India has not been able to reap the benefit compared to other parts of the region in the country,” Mero said.
Though the region has more than 32 border trade points, yet only 12 are functioning properly and the rest are in a bad shape for which the Commerce Ministry is willing to upgrade the trade points. Moreover with the increasing volume of export between India and other South East Asian countries, Centre has decided to improve the trade points in the region, bordering Myanmar so that the traders can carry on with export and import without any problem.
Mero further informed that the Commerce Ministry is in the process of releasing more funds for the region to speed up ongoing work. “Funds meant for the development work should be properly utilized so that they can get further instalments,” he added. Asked whether there was any poor utilisation of funds in the region, the joint director informed that the Ministry is closely monitoring the situation.
It is learnt that during the last couple of years, the Centre has given over Rs 30 crore to the region for upgrading the industrial infrastructure and the trade points ,but the trade points with Bangladesh and Myanmar are still in a shabby state. Disappointed with the poor infrastructure, several trade bodies have already submitted memoranda to the Centre.