Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday urged the Tamil Nadu government to be proactive in attracting investments and analyse why investors are moving to other States.
“While as a Commerce Minister I am happy about investments coming towards any State in India, it would be in Tamil Nadu’s interest to attract investments as it has already established itself as a automobile hub,” she said speaking at an awards function at the MEPZ SEZ.
She noted that the State has done well in terms of attracting investments in the services sector (IT and IT-enabled sector), but it has slowed down in the manufacturing sector.
“Now, the Centre is focusing on electric vehicles, semiconductor and hardware manufacturing. Tamil Nadu can attract investments in these areas,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
She added that the investments would come if the State is proactive and urged the State to form a special team to look at investments in these areas.
The Commerce Minister has also sought a report on why the investments are not coming into the manufacturing sector when compared to the services sector from both the MEPZ SEZ and the State government.
Ms. Sitharaman assured all possible support from the Centre for industries.
‘Ready to offer sops’
In his address, Tamil Nadu Industries Minister M.C. Sampath said that the State was willing to offer incentives similar to competing States like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He said the State was gearing up to bring out an aerospace and business policy and a business facilitation policy (which would cover aspects of single window clearance).
Atulya Misra, principal secretary of the Industries Department, said that the government would form a team to look at the investments in the sectors mentioned by the Commerce Minister and also bring out a start-up policy.
Ms. Sitharaman and Mr. Sampath also presented the Export Excellence Awards for 2014-15 and 2015-16.
