The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has inaugurated its Tamil Nadu State office and State council and intends to work with the Tamil Nadu government to contribute towards economic growth.
The chamber, which has its presence s in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati, works on issues affecting the Indian industry, brings them on to the table, and suggests the way forward.
Rajeev Singh, Director-General of ICC, said it would contribute to the economic growth of the State. Pashupathy Gopalan, Chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council of the ICC, said the chamber can partner with the State government in addressing issues pertaining to climate change.
Pradeep Surekha, President of ICC, said the chamber would soon have its offices in all States in south. Mariana Pacheco, Ambassador of Colombia to India, during her speech, said that four MoUs would be signed between both countries in medical and pharmaceutical space. She mentioned about the famous Columbian coffee and said that efforts were being taken to bring it to India jointly with Indian companies.
Youngseup Kwon, Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea in Chennai, who was the special guest at the event, said that when compared to other countries’ investments, Korean companies’ investments in India were different in several aspects. “Korean investments are green field investments that create new factories and lots of new local jobs, not the M&A of Indian companies, or capital participation in the existing Indian companies.”
“Korean companies have been procuring most of components, or ingredients locally. For example, Hyundai Motors has been producing engines and transmission, the two most important parts, in India, instead of importing them from Korea or other countries,” he said. In addition, Korean companies had established big R&D centres in India, and in many cases the technologies being developed in India had been applied in other factories in the world.
Sheiley Salehin, Deputy High Commissioner for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, said: “Around 2.5 million people from Bangladesh visit India, particularly Tamil Nadu for medical tourism.”
Addressing the chamber heads, consul general’s and deputy high commissioners, S. Krishnan, Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu, Industries Department, highlighted how the State went out of the way to help industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. He pointed out that the State government had the highest women workforce in industries.
