TN govt to sign 17 MoUs worth ₹15,000cr today

TN-BOUND

TN govt to sign 17 MoUs worth ₹15,000cr today

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:27.05.2020

In the midst of lockdown and Covid-19 pandemic, the Tamil Nadu government is scheduled to sign memorandums of understanding on Wednesday with 17 foreign investors hoping to bring in investments worth ₹15,000 crore, highly placed sources said.

In the presence of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, the state government will sign the MoUs. “Most of the investors will join the event through video conferencing with some local representatives at the Secretariat joining in. Some of the investors have been in talks since November last year and the deals have come through now. The state-run ELCOT is making arrangements for video calls with the heads of the firms for the signing event,” said a source.

The investments are expected to be made in areas like mobile making, truck making, data centres, auto components and electric vehicles, and the investors are from countries like Germany, Finland, Japan, China, France and Taiwan.

Multiple teams like the chief secretary-led special task force for investment promotion, industries department and its wings, SIPCOT, Investment Facilitation Cell have been behind the initiative, with TN Guidance playing a key role in attracting the investors. “During the discussions held on the sidelines of the recent task force meeting chaired by the chief secretary, key inputs were received on investments. Based on that, follow up discussions were held, and that attracted some more projects for Wednesday’s MoU signing,” said a source.

The 16-member special investment promotion force had its first meeting last week to attract investors from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and the USA that are likely to relocate their manufacturing bases from China post Covid-19, precisely to diversify their supply chain. Much of the projects to be signed on Wednesday are new, and some, for which MoUs were finalised recently, are in the process of finalising the location for setting up the plants.

“The units are spread across the state. There is certainly a new interest in India and naturally TN gets a fair share because of its vast presence of foreign investors,” another source said.