Tamil Nadu   

Best time to woo investors: Maran

Staff Reporter

Says the new government in Tamil Nadu is industry-friendly

GREETINGS: R. Seshasayee, president, CII, with Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister for Communications, at the CII national council meeting in Chennai on Friday. — Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran on Friday countered the criticism that he was promoting Tamil Nadu as an investment destination with the poser "if you do not do it now, when will you."

Reacting to the charge that he was trying to woo investments for the State, he said, in a lighter vein, "such allegations are true." The Minister said, "Tamil Nadu is not outside India ... it is a part of India."

Mr. Maran, addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) national council meeting here, said the timing could not be better when all the Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu were part of the coalition at the Centre and there were 13 Ministers from the State in the Union Cabinet.

Expressing happiness at the CII meeting being conducted in Chennai, particularly in his constituency, the Minister said after United Progressive Alliance came to power a lot of industrial investments came to Tamil Nadu and many more were in the pipeline.

Services sector

Since Tamil Nadu boasted of a strong manufacturing base, the growth of the services sector was not cause for concern. Maran said this in the context of inherent risks associated with the sector in view of its dependence on "happenings outside [abroad]."

Nonetheless, there were areas in which Tamil Nadu could learn from others' experience. Chennai should learn from the experience of Bangalore, where traffic blues were driving many companies to Tamil Nadu, he said.

Cautioning Chennai against committing the same mistakes, he said the new government in the State was industry-friendly and trying to look at issues differently, such as forming a task force on IT. It wanted to spread the development of the IT industry to tier II and III cities such as Madurai, Tiruchi and Tirunelveli to relieve the stress on Chennai.

While underlining the need for an Indian Institute of Information Technology that would prepare graduates coming out of engineering colleges for the industry, he urged the captains of industry to initiate measures in this regard.

CII president R. Seshasayee said the industry body had the second largest membership in the State.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Best time to woo investors: Maran
Young engineers should stay back to serve the nation, says Ratan Tata
Manufacturers urged to be globally competitive
Council submits paper for promoting trade
DVAC closing in on former Ministers
From bonded labourers to rice mill owners
Over 20,000 litres of white kerosene seized, two held
From dusty roads to synthetic tracks
Briefly

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu