“State government keen on dedicated cluster for Japanese SMEs”

The Tamil Nadu government is interested in establishing a dedicated industrial cluster for small and medium units from Japan, Principal Secretary, Industries, Rajiv Ranjan said on Tuesday.

Addressing the ‘India-Hiroshima Prefecture Business Matching Seminar 2010’ hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr. Ranjan said the cluster was likely to be located close to Chennai.

The government was also keen on a Chennai-Bangalore corridor of excellence on the lines of the Delhi-Mumbai corridor, Mr. Ranjan said. He noted that Japan, which is already involved in funding the Metro Rail project in Chennai and the Hogenakkal water supply scheme, had evinced interest in the Chennai-Bangalore corridor.

The Industries Secretary was optimistic that the Tamil Nadu-Hiroshima business relationship would evolve along with the continuing bilateral dialogue between India and Japan.

Kazuaki Jono, Vice-Governor, Hiroshima Prefectural Government, who led the Hiroshima delegation to the city, said he expected accelerated economic exchange between Tamil Nadu and Hiroshima in the months ahead.

At present, only seven of the 426 representations of Hiroshima in the Asian region are in India.

Apart from its core sectors such as ship building, iron and steel and automobiles, Hiroshima was also recognised as a hub for advanced technology incubation, Mr. Jono said. Providing an overview of the State’s strengths or overseas investments, M. Velmurugan, executive vice chairman, Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau, said the differentiators included favourable government policies, low operational costs, and ready availability of technical manpower.

Listing the global giants who had set base in Chennai, Mr. Velmurugan pointed out that the government would welcome support industry ventures from Japan in the automobile and electronic hardware sectors. There was great scope in the automobile sector as Chennai was billed to be among the top ten automobile manufacturing hubs in the world while a handphone maker like Nokia imported 87 per cent of components, he pointed out.

Kazuo Minagawa, Consul General of Japan in Chennai, said the growing number of Japanese companies in Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai, was a sign of the growing interest of Japanese investors and business class in setting shop here. Rajiv Rai, co-chairman, CII sub-committee on International Business Promotion and Networking, and Sujith Haridas, regional director, CII, also spoke.