Biren inspects Apparel and Garment Making Centre

Pothashang News Service: Imphal, August 9, 2018: Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh on Thursday visited the Apparel and Garment Making Centre at Permanent Trade and Exhibition Centre, Lamboikhongnangkhong in Imphal West and inspected the progress of apparel production.

The building and machinery of Unit-1 of the government-owned Centre is currently utilised by a private company known as Big Concepts Foundation Pvt. Ltd for high quality apparel production.

Biren Singh informed reporters that soon after the new state government that was sworn-in last year it started exploring means to encourage self employment and entrepreneurship through large scale production of different apparels using high-quality fabrics imported from Guangzhou (China).

A number of Mumbai-based companies, which supply varieties of modern clothing to different parts of the country including Manipur, are also using the same fabrics/raw materials manufactured at Guangzhou, he added.

The chief minister said that these raw materials take around 40 days to reach Mumbai from the Chinese city in sea route. However, it takes only 12 days to reach Imphal by road through Indo-Myanmar border town Moreh, he added.

As such, it is confident that the state can produce high quality apparels and dressings at cheaper and affordable rates if this advantage of geographical proximity is exploited effectively, Biren said.

For the time being, a private company has been brought on board and permitted to utilise the building and machinery of Unit-1 of the centre at Lamboikhongnangkhong for apparel production, he said.

Stating that production of different ladies’ dresses started around six months back, the chief minister said that he was told that around 2000 pieces having ‘Make in Manipur’ tag had been produced so far.

The private company-run unit is currently giving employment to around 50 people. This figure may increase to around 300 people once the other units at the Centre also start functioning.

The chief minister was accompanied by Manipur Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Dr. Sapam Ranjan, MLA H. Dingo, MLA Th. Satyabrata and principal secretary to CM Vumlunmang Vualnam. They interacted with the officials of the private company and workers.

Responding to a query regarding his meeting with governor Najma Heptulla on Thursday, the Biren said that the discussion was mainly about the present unrest at Manipur University.

He said the governor has just returned from Delhi after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he expressed hope that the issue would be resolved soon.