Dubai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, in a bid to boost Make in India through Make in Tamil Nadu, has signed seven Memoranda of Understanding during his whirlwind tour of UAE, totalling Rs42 billion (Dh2.15 billion) in investments.
Enhancing the trade partnership between the UAE and India further, Tamil Nadu has attracted several new investments at the Business Leaders Forum with DP World leading with Rs10 billion of investments by setting up a state-of-the-art Free Trade Warehousing Zone in Chennai and Kattupalli.
Addressing the gathering, Palaniswami underlined the vision of the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, whose goal was to make the state Numero Uno. “My Government, following the footsteps of our leader, has been steadily progressing in achieving her vision for my state,” he said.
The state had earlier attracted investment commitments amounting to nearly $43 billion through 304 MOUs at the Global Investors Meet 2019 in January this year.
“Tamil Nadu has been taking various initiatives to further promote sectors like e-vehicle manufacturing, electronic hardware and software, food processing, aircraft MRO facilities,” added Palaniswami, who made a stopover in the UAE en route to Chennai from the US.
Palaniswami and his high-level delegation of three senior ministers — MC Sampath, Minister for Industries; RB Udhayakumar, Minister for Revenue, Disaster Management and IT; and KT Rajenthra Bhalaji, Minister for Milk and Dairy Development, — and several top-ranking officials have been on a tour since August 28 to bring in investments to the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which ranks second in India’s economy and contributes to around 10 per cent of country’s GDP.
Tamil Nadu has become the emerging growth centre for Aerospace and Defence Corridor, Medi Park, Food Park, Polymer Park and Electric Vehicle Park.
“Tamil Nadu attracted $29.848 billion of FDI from April 2000 — March 2019, making it the fourth largest FDI destination region in India,” said K. Shanmugam, Chief Secretary of Government of Tamil Nadu, which has sixty-two of the Fortune 500 companies present in the state and is the second largest recipient of UAE investments in India.
Forty five per cent of India’s car exports are from Tamil Nadu and now aims to make their mark even on the electric vehicles. “The chief minister will unveil an electric vehicle policy soon,” Shanmugam said.
