GUWAHATI, May 12? At a time when the Centre is trying to boost export between North-East India and Myanmar in a bid to garner revenue, the export growth rate has fallen drastically in the region. The exporters of the North-east are worried over the prevailing situation as no big company is willing to invest in the region. According to official statistics, the export growth rate between North-east India and Myanmar across the Moreh border, which was recorded at 4.2 per cent during the past couple of years, now has gone down to 2.1 per cent only. The poor growth rate is attributed to lack of infrastructure, poor communication system and unwillingness of big companies to invest in the region.
Though the Government of India has decided to spend 10 per cent of its resources especially in the North-east India for promotion of export with the neighbouring countries, the State governments of the North-east have not been able to do much in this regard. A section of exporters today informed The Assam Tribune that inspite of having vast resources, the State governments are yet to encourage the exporters for which exports have suffered a setback.? Our main problem is that the big companies are reluctant to help the exporters resulting in a sluggish growth of export,? they said, adding that imports in the region have not been affected so far.
Giving more information in this regard, the exporters said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had recognised ?Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank? (Myanmar Economic Bank) for transaction during export and import which irked the big companies. ?We have nothing to export from the region,? they said and appealed to the State governments to take urgent steps to overcome the problem. Meanwhile, the Centre has formulated new guidelines for promotion of export in the North-east India. Highly-placed official sources said that the Centre had asked the State governments to set up State Level Export Promotion Committees (SLEPCs) headed by the Chief Secretaries. The SLEPCs will scrutinise and approve scientific projects, the sources added.