Imphal, September 19, 2010: On their three day visit to assess the feasibility of opening trade and commerce, a 19-member team of the Ambassadors of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) arrived here today.

The team on arrival at Imphal Airport was given a warm welcome by top officials of the state government and were lodged at Hotel Classic.

At 5.10 pm, the delegation held a meeting with Chief Minister, O Ibobi at his office bungalow in which top officials of the state government and cabinet ministers of the SPF government also took part including commander of 25 BRTF, official sources said.

They will proceed to Moreh tomorrow by road at 6 am.

They will breakfast at Pallel and intend to return to Imphal on the same day after inspecting the infrastructures being developed in Moreh to create a border trade centre with Myanmar.

The state government is making it hectic effort to install an Integrated Check Post (ICP) and also developing other infrastructures for border trade in Moreh.

The Ambassadors' team will be accompanied by Asholi Chalai, secretary, Union ministry of Development of North East Region (DoNER) who is here to study the feasibility of opening trade and commerce between ASEAN countries and India through Moreh, official source said.

The ASEAN team is led Malaysian Ambassador Dalo Tan Seng Sung.

The team will gather a first-hand account of the feasibility of introducing trade through Moreh under India's Look East policy, sources here said.

The team comprises of diplomats of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia and after the meeting with the Chief Minister and state government officials they were entertained with a cultural programme at the banquet hall of the 1st Manipur Rifles Battalion.

They arrived at Imphal Airport after a two hour delay due to bad weather.

This led to a change in their scheduled meetings too, the source said.

Preceding the visit of the diplomats to Moreh, state commerce and industries minister, Y Erabot and MLA, N Mangi, chairman, Manipur Industrial Development Corporation held a meeting in Moreh with the traders of Indo-Myanmar Border Trade at 12.30 pm today after the inauguration of Integrated Trade Information and Facility Centre.

What had transpired in the meeting could not be officially confirmed but highly reliable sources said that the meeting mainly discussed on felicitating the visiting diplomats in the town and providing security arrangements in the sites where inspections are to be conducted.

In is pertinent to mention here that India's Look East Policy under Vision-2020 is keeping an eye an Asian countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and others and in a bid to deepen economic and cultural ties with the ASEAN countries to attract investments in the North East states.

India has already signed the India-ASEAN trade agreement that covers tariff liberalisation between the parties, which came into force from January 1, 2010.India and ASEAN countries are currently negotiating a Services and Investment Agreement.

India is keen to conclude a liberal agreement that would have substantial sectoral coverage and would provide a meaningful commercial market access.

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