Minister MC Sampath counters Stalin’s charges on investors meet

CHENNAI: Strongly denying charges levelled by DMK president MK Stalin regarding the recently concluded Global Investors Meet (GIM), Industries Minister MC Sampath on Thursday said the second edition of the GIM was a grand success in terms of attracting global investors and that Stalin was making baseless charges.

In a statement, Sampath said the GIM attracted investments of whopping Rs 3,00,431 crore and this alone stood as a testimony to the success of the meet.

Stating that viewing the data regarding foreign direct investments on long-term basis alone would be the right approach, the minister said, “At the national level, Tamil Nadu has been in the fourth place continuously. Our State has attracted more FDI than Gujarat.  

During the period between 2000 to 2018, Tamil Nadu had received FDI worth USD 28.8 billion. Of this, USD 21.5 billion worth FDI was received between 2011-18. Hence, the FDI received during the past eight years was three-fold more than what was received during the 10 year period before 2011. So, Stalin should stop quoting data related to just the past six months.”

On the charge that FDI had come down by 21 per cent in Tamil Nadu, Sampath said “Between March and September 2018, the FDI to Tamil Nadu stood at Rs 10,892 crore. During the same period in 2017, it stood at Rs 13,898 crore. However, during the same period, FDI in Maharashtra came down by 43 per cent. But one cannot argue that FDI has come down just by quoting data relating to six months.”