For the second edition of its Global Investors Meet - to be held in January 2019 - Tamil Nadu is looking to attract more than Rs 20,000 crore worth of investments from Gujarat-based industrial groups.
Some of the prominent business houses from Gujarat in the areas of pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, food processing, engineering and city gas distribution (CGD) are going South to further strengthen their businesses.
At a roadshow in Ahmedabad on Thursday, K Gnanadesikan, additional chief secretary, Industries department, Tamil Nadu, stated that the Summit will witness participation from a spectrum of domestic and global investors.
"We are encouraging investments in the pharmaceuticals sector to create a base in Tamil Nadu. Also, Chennai is emerging as a major R&D centre for drug discovery and contract research organisations. Our key interest is employment generation and we have developed our policies around this objective," said Gnanadesikan on the sidelines of the roadshow.
Recently, Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group won a licence to set up a City Gas Distribution network in Chennai. The Summit will see many more companies from Gujarat ink investment intentions and agreements. The Global Investors’ Meet 2019 will take place during January 23-24 in Chennai.
According to officials, some companies from Gujarat have already committed investments, while others will ink MoUs during the summit, which would immediately follow Gujarat's own investment congregation under the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit during January 18-20.
Tamil Nadu is gearing itself to remain among the top states in the manufacturing and IT space. The state has formulated dedicated policies for food processing, start-ups and information technology. A separate Defence & Aerospace policy will soon be announced after clearance from the State Cabinet, Gnanadesikan said.
Commenting on the previous edition of the meet, M Velmurugan, executive vice-chairman, said the first edition in 2015 saw 98 MoUs being inked with investment commitment of Rs 2.42 lakh crore. "Of the 98 MoUs, about 64 projects are currently at various stages of implementation. While some have started production, some others have commissioned projects. The implementation rate is encouraging. So far, the employment generated from these 64 projects is 80,000," said Velmurugan.
For the 2019 edition, the state government looks to invite global and national corporate leaders to further invest in the areas of ports, infrastructure and medicine.