Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu accompanied Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on his visit to the United Arab Emirates for attracting investments into Tamil Nadu. In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Thennarasu elaborates on the steps being taken by the Tamil Nadu government to attract investments and the specific sectors which the State is focussing on, and how the DMK government would not discriminate against the projects that were signed during the erstwhile AIADMK regime.
What are the steps being taken by the State government to facilitate an atmosphere conducive to business?
Our Single Window Portal 2.0 offers investors 100 digitised services spread across 24 departments. An additional 100 services shall be onboarded by the end of 2022. The government recently released the Tamil Nadu Fintech Policy and the Export Promotion Strategy in order to encourage the development of the FinTech ecosystem and increase exports from the State.
The government is also working on new policies such as Life Sciences & Manufacturing policy, R&D policy and updates to the EV policy to accelerate the growth of these sectors. The government is in the process of establishing eight new Industrial parks over an extent of 5,600 acres in Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram and Dharmapuri districts. It is also proposing to establish new industrial parks in Coimbatore, Perambalur, Madurai and Vellore districts to promote balanced regional industrial development in the State.
Product-specific industrial parks such as Apparel Park and Footwear Component Park have already been established. The State government is in the process of developing sector specific parks. The Chief Minister has already laid the foundation for an International Furniture Park in Thoothukudi. Besides, the government is planning to establish other sector specific parks such as Medical Devices Park at Oragadam, Leather Product Park at Ranipet, 3 Food Parks in Manappari, Tindivanam and Theni, two exclusive electronics clusters will be established at Pillaipakkam & Mannallur and a mega leather Footwear & Accessories Cluster is porposed at Panappakkam. Besides, an integrated Apparel Park/Mega Textile Parks are proposed at Dharmapuri district.
Biz Buddy is an industry help desk portal designed to facilitate B2G interactions between investors and the State government with the objective of providing enhanced aftercare services through a streamlined redressal mechanism. Guidance has several in-house teams to support investors along the project lifecycle starting from the pre-establishment to the post-establishment phase and aftercare. The Export Cell in Guidance shall provide export organisations in Tamil Nadu different services such as facilitation of export related queries, matchmaking between trade partners, redressal of export related issues, knowledge services, export promotion and outreach engagements.
A UAE-specific country desk which has been set up in Guidance to facilitate investors’ discussions, engage with the country’s diplomatic corps, trade organisations, and industrial associations. The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement is a bilateral trade pact which includes products such as leather, processed agriculture and dairy products, handicrafts, gems & jewellery, furniture, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, engineering products, and services.
What are the incentives and concessions for factories and MSMEs?
The government provides different incentives such as capital subsidy, turnover-based subsidy, SGST reimbursement, stamp duty exemption, electricity duty exemption etc. under the various State policies such as Tamil Nadu Industrial policy, Tamil Nadu EV policy, Tamil Nadu Electronics and Hardware Manufacturing policy to name a few. Large investors (investment over ₹300 crore) are provided with a structured package of incentives. MSME investors are eligible to apply for incentives under the Tamil Nadu MSME policy.
Which are the sectors the government is focussing on? The government of Tamil Nadu has segregated the sectors into two categories: Focus and Sunrise sectors. Focus sectors are areas in which the State is traditionally strong such as automobile and auto components, chemicals, electronics and hardware, heavy engineering, leather, textiles, financial services and software.
Sunrise sectors are sectors that shall be responsible for driving future growth and overlap with the State’s Focus sectors. These are aerospace and defence, agro and food processing (except edible oils), renewable energy components manufacturing, electronics system design and manufacturing, medical electronics devices and equipment, electric vehicles, EV cell and battery manufacturing (including green fuel technology such as hydrogen), biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, bulk drugs and nutraceuticals, petrochemicals and speciality chemicals, footwear, finished leather goods and polyurethane fabric and technical textiles including medical textiles.
Could you share details of the MoU signed since the new DMK government came to power in May last year?
Since assuming power, in the past 10 months alone, 130 MoUs have been signed with a cumulative investment of ₹ 68,405.54 crore and employment opportunities to 2,05,402 persons. The investments were across areas in focus sectors such as electronics, auto-components, industrial parks, Free Trade Warehouse Zones, IT/ITeS, general manufacturing, food processing, footwear, pharmaceuticals, and textiles, as well as new areas such as furniture manufacturing, EV charging infrastructure, to name a few. The investments are in various districts of Tamil Nadu which shall ensure balanced regional development.
Following up on MoUs, at what stage are the proposals currently?
As I said, we have signed 130 MoUs ever since assuming office barely 10 months back. Twenty-one of these 130 MoUs have been signed a fortnight ago. Hence, the implementation process of these projects will take a little time. As far as the rest of the projects are concerned, i.e., 109 projects, 3 projects have already commenced production/partial production/trial production). Nine projects have commenced their construction/ready for foundation. As many as 96 projects are under implementation. Only one project has dropped off citing financial reasons. The MoUs signed are scrupulously followed up by specialised sector-specific teams in Guidance. The progress is continuously monitored and updated. We are confident that these regular follow ups will ensure implementation of these projects in the near future.
What happened to the deals signed under the previous AIADMK regime?
Out of the 165 MoUs (excluding GIM 2019) signed during the previous regime, only 52 projects have commenced commercial production. The actual investment realized is ₹7,924 crore and the actual employment provided is about 20,363 persons. Effectively, only 32% of the MoUs signed have really taken off. The actual investment realised in these completed projects is only 7.46%. With regard to employment, it is about 8.17% only. About 80 projects are under various stages of implementation, viz. (commenced construction, lands purchased, land identification under process, yet to commence activity, etc.). There is no significant investment and employment made so far in these projects so far. Probably, when they fructify, the investment and employment levels may increase to some extent. Twenty-four projects have already been dropped with a committed investment of ₹11,963 crore and employment promised to about 10,951 persons.
With regard to GIM investments, as I already said in Assembly, the less said about it, the better. Although they boasted that they attracted a large amount of investment, only a miniscule portion been received.
On our part, we do not discriminate against projects that were signed during the earlier regime. We are continuously following up each investment project and ensure that the confidence they repose in our government is justified. Our motto is to make the State as one of the leading destinations for attracting investments. The Chief Minister has vowed to make this State a 1 trillion USD economy by the end of 2030-31. We will continue to pursue our goals and ensure that the target set is met in full and to his utmost satisfaction.
