Goyal pledges to maximize Manipur's FTA benefits as ASEAN gateway

When two countries sign a free-trade agreement, they agree to lower or eliminate the tariffs that normally sit between their goods. They also open up their services sectors and make it easier for money to flow across the border. India and the ten nations of ASEAN—Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, and Laos—struck such a deal in January 2010. More than a decade later, Union Minister Piyush Goyal sat down with Manipur's business leaders on a Saturday in November and made a simple promise: the central government would work to ensure his state actually felt the benefit of that agreement.

Manipur's position is not accidental. The state sits on India's eastern edge, sharing a border with Myanmar and serving as a natural bridge to the broader Southeast Asian market. Goyal framed it plainly: Manipur is a gateway. The question, implicit in his remarks, was whether it would ever become more than a theoretical one. He told the assembled industrialists that his ministry would make every possible effort to unlock the state's potential under the existing FTA framework.

The government has not been idle. Goyal pointed to the North-East Industrial Development Scheme and the Integrated Development and Promotion of Industrial Projects as evidence of commitment to the region. These programs represent real money and real infrastructure being directed toward the Northeast. But infrastructure alone does not move goods. Goyal urged the business community itself to step up—to form joint ventures, launch startups, share technology, and build common platforms that could amplify the impact of government investment.

The industrial bodies that showed up that Saturday represented the actual machinery of Manipur's economy: the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Indo-Myanmar Border Traders' Union, the All Manipur Entrepreneurs' Association, the Business Excellence Group, the Power loom Development Association, and the Handloom and Handicraft Entrepreneurs Artisan Development Society. They came with a list. They wanted a transit duty system introduced. They wanted visa fees cut. They wanted trade-related offices—a DGFT office, an Exim Bank cell, an RBI forex cell—all located in Imphal rather than requiring trips to distant metros. They asked for a multimodal logistics park. They wanted transport subsidies for exporters and importers. They wanted Imphal Airport upgraded with cold storage and customs facilities.

These requests paint a picture of a region with ambition but without the basic infrastructure to match it. A trader in Manipur cannot easily move goods across the border without navigating a thicket of bureaucratic steps that require travel or delay. An exporter cannot compete on price when transport costs eat into margins. An airport without cold storage cannot handle perishables. These are not abstract grievances. They are the specific friction points where policy meets commerce.

Goyal's response included a commitment that the Northeast would be treated with respect for its own identity and needs—that states in the region would not have to rush to Delhi or Kolkata for every decision. Whether that translates into the specific infrastructure requests on the table remains to be seen. The FTA with ASEAN has been in place for over a decade. Manipur's potential as a gateway has been recognized for years. What the state's business leaders are signaling is that recognition alone is not enough. The infrastructure has to follow.