Jayalalithaa woos investors, targets USD 250 billion in infrastructure

Chennai: Inviting global investors to take advantage of industry-friendly policies of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said the state had set an investment target of USD 250 billion in the infrastructure sector in the coming years.

"Investment in Tamil Nadu is a sound investment", she said while inaugurating the 'Global Investors Meet' and an exhibition showcasing, among other things, the achievements of the state.

Jayalalithaa noted that Tamil Nadu was amongst the early states to capitalise on economic reforms launched in India in the early 1990s. She said that under the 'Vision 2023' initiated by the state government, the per capita income of the state will be raised to the levels of higher income countries. The Chief Minister recalled that automobile giants like Hyundai and Ford had set up manufacturing facilities in Tamil Nadu availing of the industry friendly policies of the state.

The participants at the meet were treated to a glitzy cultural extravaganza including a programme by eminent dancer Urmila Sathyanarayana and her troupe. The main logo of the global investors meet 'Pegasus' was also unveiled on the occasion. Pegasus is an ancient Greek winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color, showing development. The Tamil 'Thai Vazhuthu' (salutary song) was also sung on the occasion.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Highways and Ports Pon Radhakrishnan and industry captains including HCL founder Shiv Nadar, Mahendra Group Chief Anand Mahendra and Sundaram Clayton Chairman Venu Srinivasan were present on the occasion. Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Delegations of partner nations, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, France, Italy, UK, Singapore and the Russian Federation are also taking part in the two-day event.

"The Global Investors Meet (GIM) has targeted investment commitments of 1 lakh crore rupees which has already been exceeded. I am very confident that further commitments would be made over these two days," Jayalalithaa said.

Making a strong pitch of her state as an investment friendly destination, Jayalalithaa said it was leading in the areas of textiles, leather, IT, health care, automobiles and auto components, among others. "The share of our services sector in the economy is one of the highest in India. Tamil Nadu attracts the third highest Foreign Direct Investment in the country," she said.

"In fact, the foreign investment actually coming into Tamil Nadu would be even more. A significant portion of the foreign investment made in Tamil Nadu is counted against some other states since the Indian head offices of the foreign companies are located there," she added.

Detailing her pro-business initiatives, Jayalalithaa said that she had brought out the New Industrial Policy in 1992, which gave a fillip to industrialisation. "We have constantly updated our policy framework and redoubled our efforts. I launched the latest version of the Industrial Policy in 2014," she said adding she had fine-tuned sector specific policies for Auto and Auto Components and Bio-technology sectors in 2014.

Her government's Solar Energy Policy in 2012 had resulted in Tamil Nadu becoming the largest domestic roof top solar energy generation capacity in the country, she said.

Jayalalithaa said the state's power situation was also looking up as against four years back when "chronic power shortages were a legacy bequeathed to me" when she assumed office then.

A slew of conventional and renewable power generation projects and long term power supply agreements have been entered into to ensure that Tamil Nadu "will not be power scarce at all in the foreseeable future," the Chief Minister said. Jayalalithaa said the state had worked hard on improving the investment climate and that the government had formulated a very innovatively designed Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Programme, (TNIPP) with Japanese assistance.

TNIPP effectively aligns the policy priorities of the state government with the expectations of investors and that her government believed in balanced industrial development across the state, the Chief Minister said.

The state government had introduced a 'very attractive package' of incentives to encourage investors to invest in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu and a "ready to occupy land bank of 42,000 acres is available for industry," she said. "I had also recently ordered that for investment commitments made in the state all necessary final clearances shall be accorded within 30 days," Jayalalithaa said.

While the total incremental investment proposed in the state during April 2011 to June 2015 was Rs 2,61,709.92 crore, the government has facilitated 86 investments, with a cumulative investment of Rs 43,101.81 crore through Memorandum of Understanding and Single Window Facilitation during the said period, she added.

"Let me assure all the investors present here today that an investment in Tamil Nadu is a very sound investment. It is an investment in the hard working, enterprising and reliable people of the state of Tamil Nadu," she said.

She also inaugurated, through video conferencing, three industrial projects, a two-wheeler manufacturing plant of Yamaha Motor Pvt Ltd at Kanchipuram, TICEL Bio Park II at Taramani here and expansion unit of TVS Moto at Hosur.

Meanwhile, the roads leading to the venue, Chennai Trade Centre were decorated with festoons and AIADMK flags, and a series of road-side cultural events and playing of the percussion instruments were also witnessed en route the conference site. Tight security vigil was present in and around the venue.