Tamil Nadu’s Industries Investment Promotion and Commerce Department, along with Guidance Tamil Nadu, has started wooing potential investors for the Global Investors Meet 2024. It has made its first pitch in the Nordic region.
A team, headed by Thangam Thennarasu, Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce, visited Denmark, Finland and Sweden last week. Among other sectors, it highlighted Tamil Nadu’s renewable and wind energy ecosystem. S. Krishnan, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce; Vishnu Venugopalan, MD and CEO; Guidance Tamil Nadu; and Reeta Harish Thakkar, Special Secretary, Department of Finance, were part of the delegation. Guidance Tamil Nadu is the investment promotion agency of the State government.
“We visited the Port of Esbjerg, the largest offshore wind port in Europe. This was more like a study tour to understand how this port operates,” Mr. Thennarasu said. He said this would be the template for developing the VOC Port at Thoothukudi. The delegation also met companies like Flender, Envision, Maersk and Siemens Gamesa.
In Helsinki, Finland, the delegation visited Kone and Nokia Networks. “Kone is going in for an expansion at Pillaipakkam, Sriperumbudur. It will cater for the domestic market and is also planning to export from here. The company asked for land, and we have allotted it,” Mr. Thennarasu said. “With Nokia, the discussions dealt with 5G technology,” he added.
Discussions were held with IQM Quantum Computers, a company that develops computer hardware designed to provide technical resolutions through quantum technologies. The company is looking to expand in India. A meeting with the IQM team has been proposed in Tamil Nadu in June or July this year.
The Minister said that in Sweden, the delegation focussed on the aerospace and defence sectors. “We had meetings with Saab and explained the Defence Industrial Corridor in Tamil Nadu.” Saab is supplying camouflage and missile systems to the Indian armed forces. “We had discussions with Ericsson on the expansion of its R&D facility in Chennai,” Mr. Thennarasu said. The team also met Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard and held discussions on renewable energy.
The Tamil Nadu government will host the Global Investors Meet in Chennai on January 10 and 11, 2024. And this will be the first Global Investor Meet for the DMK government. The previous two meets were held in 2015 and 2019 when the AIADMK was in power.
