IN a move to improve the bilateral relations between India and Myanmar, a Letter of Credit (LoC) system is being introduced from this year while conducting import and export of goods along the border. For this both countries have agreed that United Bank of India (UBI) will be the bank for felicitating the LoC system. Representatives of UBI would be soon going to Myanmar for imparting the required training to their local counterparts.

A joint meeting of all the officials of the two countries will be held shortly at Moreh to finalise the modalities for introducing LoC from this year to boost the ongoing border-trade between the two countries.

It may be worth mentioning here that Indo-Myanmar border trade was opened by the then Union Minister of Commerce P Chidambaram on April 12, 1995 in presence of his Myanmar counterpart at Moreh. The new development of introducing LoC has come up in the wake of a July visit of an official team of the Union Ministry of Industries and Commerce to Myanmar for making Moreh on the Indian side and Tamu on Myanmar side free trade zones. “We are expecting the introduction of Letter of Credit system would help businessmen and women who are carrying out export and import business in bulk,” an official of industries and commerce ministry said. Presently both sides have been continuing import and export business on 20 items, mostly agricultural products. At the initial stage the items listed in the trade agreement chart numbered around 22.