Govindas calls for investment in Manipur
NEW DELHI, April 10: It was a grand success of the Mission of the Manipur team led by the Minister of Commerce and Industry of Manipur Govindas Konthoujam who attended the two-day tiol workshop on Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks at Surat in Gujarat on April 9-10 and looked for investors to take up textile industry in Manipur.
Govindas Konthoujam was very happy when he found some investors for the upcoming Textile Park in Lamboikhongngkhong in Imphal. He was accompanied by the Commissioner ( Commerce & Industry), Manipur Vivek Kumar Devangan and Director (Commerce & Industry), Manipur B. John Tlangtinkham at the tiol Workshop. Govindas Khonthoujam shared the dais with the Union Minister of State for Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar sitting next to him.
In his address at the tiol Workshop, the Minister of Commerce and Industry said, “We have gathered here to share and identify the best practices in implementation of the Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks (SITP) and also to identify areas of improvement and discuss strategy to incorporate such improvements in design and implementation of the scheme.
He stated that when Union Minister of Textiles and Union Secretary of Textiles visited Manipur on 24th March last to lay the foundation stones of an Apparel & Garment Making Centre and a Power-loom Estate in Manipur, Manipur Government had requested them to consider setting up of an Integrated Textiles Park if the State fulfilled all the criteria required. They readily agreed to consider the proposal and invited him with his officers to attend this tiol Workshop on SITP so as to eble them understanding various aspects of the Scheme. “Accordingly, I am here with my team of officers to interact with local industry of Surat and visit successful textile parks and take forward our pursuit of setting up a new textile park in Manipur”, he rrated.
Govindas expressed his grateful to the Central Government that Union Ministry of Textiles had been giving special focus to North Eastern States as part of “Act East Policy” of Government of India. The Scheme of Geotextiles for North Eastern Region (NER) was also launched recently in Manipur by the Union Minister of Textiles during his visit to the State.
He informed that Manipur was the State having the highest concentration of handloom weavers in the country with 33% households dependent on handlooms. With the fincial assistance from the Ministry of Textiles under Integrated Handloom Development Schemes (IHDS) and North Eastern Region Technology Promotion Schemes (NERTPS), the State Government was helping 29,000 weavers directly and another 30,000 weavers indirectly.
He stated that keeping in view of the factors such as geographical isolation and difficult terrain of North East Region with high cost of construction, transportation and erection of machinery in the region, an intervention under the aegis of the Umbrella scheme of North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS) was taken up by Government of India as an initiative to promote organized textile industry.
He also expressed his thankfulness to the Centre that under NERTPS, Ministry of Textiles had been giving special emphasis to North Eastern Region in general and Manipur in particular. He said, “We have got approvals for two Sericulture projects in Manipur- one, Rs.150 crore for Phase-II of Manipur Sericulture Project in valley Districts and another, Rs.30.39 crore for Integrated Sericulture Development Project for Mulberry & Eri in Hill Districts of Manipur. The Ministry of Textiles has also launched an Apparel & Garment Making Centre in Manipur with a project cost of Rs. 18.18 crore as well as a Power-loom Estate with a project cost of Rs. 13.05 crore”.
In effect, the NERTPS had really given boost to our efforts of integrating North East with the mainland, he added.
Minister of Commerce and Industry Govindas invited the investors and textile industry players to visit Manipur and see the huge expansion potential of the market not only in the North East but also in the neighboring South East Asian countries.
He informed that the tripartite meeting among India, Myanmar and Thailand was recently held to review the progress of the road corridor from Moreh in Manipur to Mandalay in Myanmar and then to Thailand. In near future Bus Services from Imphal to Mandalay was likely to become operatiol and thus opening huge South East Asian markets for Indian textile industry through Manipur.
He asserted, “With this vision we intend to set up an Integrated Textile Park in Manipur by forming Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with interested industry partners. I am quite hopeful that one of the Project Magement Consultant (PMC) from the empanelled list of Ministry of Textiles and potential investors sitting here will help us in realizing our dream of setting up a Textiles park in Manipur which will open up employment opportunities for our youth”.
Govindas Konthoujam drew the attention of the Union Minister of Textiles for taking a considered view for promotion and development of integrated textile park not only in Manipur but in each of the States in North East Region. He was quite confident that employment generation and development would bring peace and prosperity in Manipur as well in the North East region.
The two-day tiol Workshop has been conducted by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India on 9th and 10th April, 2015 in Surat to showcase progress of the Textile Parks set up under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP), a flagship scheme of the Ministry.