Manipur gets first handloom and handicraft mall

Pothashang News Service: Imphal, November 29, 2019: Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh on Friday inaugurated the first handloom and handicrafts nall of the state.

He also unveiled a crafts pillar at Wangkhei Keithel Ashangbi in Imphal East.

The mall is run by Manipur Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation (MHHDC) Ltd.

Biren said that handloom and handicraft sector hugely contributes to the overall growth of businesses related to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the state.

He said 50 per cent of the MSME business is owned by women in the state against the national average of 30 per cent as per the report of the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises.

Opening of an exclusive mall for handloom and handicraft products would bring further development of the sector as people coming from other states and countries as well as the people of the state would be able to find their favourite products under one roof, he added.

Biren directed the officials concerned to study whether the vicinity of the mall can be developed as a handloom market center. For this, the state government would provide soft loft loans if the shop owners of the area are willing to switch their business to sale of handloom products coming from different localities of hill and valley areas of the state, he said.

The state government is considering to bring out a policy to replace fabrics used in stitching school uniforms with handloom products of the state. This would increase demand of handloom fabrics thereby creating more profits for weavers, he added.

Weavers used to face lots of inconvenience in getting yarn and marketing their products earlier. However, the present government is not only providing yarn to weavers on time but also buying their products for their convenience, he said and added that the state government had also started distributing looms to large number of weavers.