Chennai to attract more French investments

Chennai: Chennai will see a surge in investment from French companies including a leading automotive group that is set to begin its production next year. 

Tamil Nadu and Chennai region is witnessing a fast growing influx of investors and several French firms have made a “choice to invest in this growing region,” says Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France in India. 

Asked about the size of investment the scores of French companies will fetch to the State, he replied it would be huge. “Of course, the initiative would generate employment opportunities on a massive scale,” he replied to a specific question. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the announcement by Mr. Ziegler and Vinay Dube, CEO of Jet Airways on the launch of the leading airlines's Chennai to Paris direct flight on Oct. 29, on Wednesday, the Ambassador said many companies preferred to invest in this growing region.

He said French automotive group PSA would start constructing its own car plant near here next year and start production from 2019. 

The PSA group is the second French automotive group to set up base here after Renault. 

The PSA is partnering with India's C.K. Birla Group and has announced an investment of around 100 million euros in setting up a 100,000 units per annum car plant.

Speaking about Indian visitors to France, Mr. Ziegler said last year around 6 lakh Indians visited France which was higher than the previous year.