Second day of the Global Investor's Meet in TN
The first-day of GIM ended on C.M, Jayalalitha's note that the investment-target of Rs.1lakh crore "has already been exceeded". The second-day discussions centered around Tamil-Nadu's infrastructure, micro small medium enterprises, hardware engineering and agro and food processing. A seminar was held in investment opportunities in IT/ITES sectors. Managing-Director of Lotte suggested that Tamil-Nadu could promote the idea of "chocolate-tourism" wherein tourist would visit chocolate-factories.
In the past years, Tamil-Nadu has been struggling against other states like Gujarat, West-Bengal, Rajasthan etc. in the competition to attract bulky investments in India. The acute power crisis in TN recently have resulted in losing a number of key projects to Gujarat, Telengana and Andhra-Pradesh. The state received only 3.5% of the total number of industrial investment in India between 2008 and 2012.
In November 2014, mobile phone major Nokia shut down its largest plant at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. The shut-down rendered almost 8000 workers jobless. The shut-down was because Microsoft which acquired Nokia's mobile-phone wing wasn't able to buy the Tamil-Nadu plant, resulting in the freezing of Nokia's assets due to a tax-dispute. The Nokia shut-down hampered the state's image as a great place to invest.
With Tamil Nadu's most ambitious venture Global Investor's Meet 2015, CM Jayalalitha claimed that it would attract investment upto Rs.1 lakh crore (US$ 16 million) A grand total of Rs.100 crore had been designated for the entire project. About 100 MoU's (Memorandum of Understanding) are presumed to be signed, of which a few are expected to be operational by the end of 2015.
The logo for the Global Investor's Meet is a Pegasus, which is a winged white horse in Greek mythology signifying rich growth and development.
Visual and laser-shows were arranged in different locations in the city of Chennai showing the overall development by the government over the past years and also the investment scenario of Tamil Nadu. There has been a lot of developmental work for pedestrian facilities, street-furniture, roads, waste-management, metro-rails, heritage buildings and cleaner canals. Roughly, 1500 rooms are booked in Chennai hotels for the delegates.
The two-day Global Investor's Meet held at the Chennai Trade Centre which is being attended by 5000 delegates (including 1000 from abroad) wasinaugurated by CM J Jayalalitha. Union Commerce Minister, Niramala Sitharaman delivered a special address stating Tamil-Nadu to be an investor-friendly state with enormous opportunities. Delegates were treated with cultural extravaganza, including dance performances and the roads leading to the venue were decorated.
Top leaders from the industy-giants of India were invited to the Global Investor's Meet 2015. They have agreed to be a part of the event. Some of them are ICICI bank-chief Chanda Kochar, HCL founder Shiv Nadar, IOC Chairman B Ashok, Chairman and MD of JSW group Sajjan Jindal. Leaders from J&K-Tyres, ITC-group, Apollo-Hospitals, MRF, TVS-Motors were also attending the event.
The US- India Business Council (USIBC) has led an executive delegation to Tamil Nadu's GIM. The delegation includes senior representatives from member companies like Amway, NCR Corporation, Uber, PayPal, SunEdison, Ford, IBM etc.
The leading industrial houses of the country like Adani Group, HCL, MRF and ITC have promised investments worth over Rs.30,000 crore in Tamil Nadu on its first day. Adani Group has alone planned to invest around Rs.10,000-15,000 crore Tamil-Nadu to set up power-plants and ports. "Our government is committed to making Tamil Nadu, a new growth model", CM Jayalalitha said in an overjoyed tone.
