Development of a ??financial city?? close to Chennai, setting up of an aerospace park in public private partnership, creation of country-specific industrial parks, sector-specific policy statements for different industries, and the establishment of a state competitiveness council are some of the newly announced proposals of the Tamil Nadu government for faster industrialisation and greater employment generation in the state.
In the reply to the debate on demand for grants for his department, the deputy chief minister and minister for industries MK Stalin said that steps were being taken to develop a financial city with private participation to attract banks, insurance firms, mutual funds and stock trading organisations to the state. The government would build the basic infrastructure for this city proposed to be developed close to Chennai, he added.
TN, a leader in the manufacture of automobiles and auto components, was now planning to set up an “aerospace park” in the state with facilities for design and engineering and manufacturing. The CII first mooted the proposal for an aero park in the state. It had envisaged the $10-billion park to generate over a lakh jobs.
Stalin said the state was planning to set up an infotainment park to make the maximum use of the fast growing animation industry. The proposed sector-specific policy would cover industries like, sugar, leather, textile, auto components, electronic hardware and others.
The state has chalked out a major plan to set up country-specific industrial parks aimed at attracting more investments to the state.
According to the policy note of industries, presented by the minister in the Assembly on Monday, the state government has identified certain countries as having higher potential to make investments in the state.
Towards this, the government has issued orders for development of country specific industrial parks for Japan, Korea, Finland, Germany and France. Each park would be developed by State Industrial Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) on about 100 acre to cater to the needs of the potential investors of these countries.
In the policy note Stalin said, ??Tamil Nadu has become one of the most favoured investment destination for both domestic and foreign investments.??
Quoting figures from the data compiled by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), he said, ??Total investments in pipeline in Tamil Nadu has shot up to 5.79 lakh crore by March 2009 from Rs 1.73 lakh crore in June 2006.??
He said during the last three years, the DMK government signed 23 memorandum of understanding besides sanctioning structured package of assistance for nine projects separately. “The total investment in the state through these 32 projects would be Rs 39, 741 crore and they would create employment opportunities for more than 2.14 lakh persons,’ he added.
Stalin said during the calendar year 2008, the government signed 12 MoUs with total investment of Rs 25,050 crore and issued structured package sanctioning order for seven other projects separately for an investment of Rs 5,462 crore.