Chennai: In yet another bid to woo foreign investors to the State, Chief Minister M K Stalin will be visiting the USA in the last week of August when several meetings are said to have been arranged for him with industrialists and business associations.
Since Stalin is likely to leave Chennai on August 22 by a scheduled flight and return three weeks later, the news has triggered speculations on the State Minister who would be holding charge of the State in the long absence of the Chief Minister.
Apart from the revival of the old rumour over State Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin being made Deputy Chief Minister and handed over the charge when Stalin would be away in the US, the grapevine now has it that there would be a reshuffle in the Ministry that would have surprises.
Not only would some new Ministers inducted into the Cabinet and some dropped, there could be change of portfolios. With the State government making sweeping changes in the top bureaucracy and police department recently, there was talk of changes happening in the Ministry, too.
Now it is believed that the changes could be brought about on the eve of the Chief Minister’s trip abroad.
In the past three years, Stalin had met industrialists in several countries like Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and Spain and invited them to make investments in Tamil Nadu, which he aspired to turn into a ‘US $ One Trillion economy’ by 2030.
In Spain, at an investors’ conclave in Madrid, Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) worth Rs 3440 were signed by various companies with the entities in Tamil Nadu in February this year. Earlier visits to other countries were also useful in convincing industrialists and business persons to see Tamil Nadu as a potential investment destination.
However, the final schedule for the Chief Minister’s August sojourn to the US has been announced and it is also not clear as to who would be travelling with him.
