CHENNAI: Preparations are on for the second edition of the Global Investors Meet (GIM) to be held on January 23-24 next year and the Tamil Nadu government is aiming to attract investment more than the first edition of the GIM, by targeting 12 key sectors.
“Tamil Nadu is hungry for investments and the State is looking at captive ports, Information Technology parks and Information Technology special economic zones (SEZ) besides investments in southern Tamil Nadu where the first phase of the Chennai-Kanniyakumari industrial corridor is proposed besides the Chennai-Salem Green Economic Corridor and Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor,” according to vice-chairman of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance Bureau M Velmurugan.
The first phase of the Chennai-Kanniyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC) project, which will have Madurai-Virudhnagar-Dindigul-Theni and Thoothu-kudi-Tirunelveli nodes, would require an investment of nearly `91,000 crore. It is likely to be taken by this year and completed by 2020. Similarly, the state is also looking at investments in the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor which will span seven districts of the state covering nearly 30,000 square km.
Among the 12 key sectors, information technology seems to be an area of interest. Among the 12 key sectors targeted by Tamil Nadu Industries department are engineering, textiles, agriculture and food processing, infrastructure and skill development, defence, IT and ITenabled services, chemical and refineries, electronic and heavy industries, auto and spare parts, renewable energy among others, a top Industry department official said. Velumurugan, who has started his second stint in the Industries department, refused to commit on any figure.
To a query on investments in the newly-proposed defence corridor, he said that it depends on the fundamentals of procurement by the Union government, which would be floating the tenders. Meanwhile, there has been a huge demand from the Information Technology sector as the state has framed an IT policy. “We have got lot of queries from firms wishing to set up IT parks and IT special economic zones in the wake of the proposed subset clause by the Centre,” said Velmurugan, who is betting high on IT investments.
“We are also planning captive ports and vying for investments in the terminals,” he said. On the failure to realise the investment in power sector, Velmurugan said that the investment is silently realised. “The state Electricity Board has signed investments to realise 1,400 MW of power in the system,” he said. Interestingly, this comes as the state is preparing a blueprint to woo investments during the Global Investors Meet next year and has asked various departments to submit a report soon on possible investments.
This comes after Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami last month reviewed the preparation for the second edition of the Global Investors Meet which is scheduled to be held from January 23-24 next year. The state government has allocated a sum of `75 crore to conduct the event. It will be the first such event being conducted under the leadership of Palaniswami.