Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hails Tamil Nadu, lists steps to speed up investment flow

CHENNAI: Hailing Tamil Nadu as an investor- friendly state with lot of opportunities waiting to be tapped, Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today listed Centre's initiatives like work to cut down on multiple prior permissions and keeping regulatory mechanism at the minimal level to speed up investment flow.

In her address at the inaugural Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet here, she said 25 thrust areas have been identified under the 'Make in India' scheme.

"A professional agency has been engaged to work with ministries in all these 25 areas so that nodal officers are helped to make ease of doing business possible," she said.

An expert committee is also looking at how multiple prior permission requirements can be cut down and the regulatory mechanism is also reduced to minimum, she said adding "the committee is actively engaged on this."

Referring to a Law Commission recommendation on setting up commercial courts, she said a bill in this regard has been introduced in Parliament, which envisages creating commercial divisions in High Court with original jurisdiction and commercial courts.

"Commercial courts would have a positive impact on IPR, arbitration, insurance and tax-related matters... a lot of concrete steps are being taken to speed up process of investing in India with great ease rather than live with red tapism," she said.

She also cited the setting up of NIIF (National Investment and Infrastructure Fund) and an investor-friendly FDI policy. She however did not elaborate on sectors which would see FDI being opened up.

"Both Union and State governments are committed to eliminate all the roadblocks for facilitating investment decisions, Make in India offers tremendous opportunities tremendous and all steps (are taken) for development of infrastructure, including port infrastructure and energy security."
Sitharaman lauded Tamil Nadu as a "progressive, proactive, investor friendly state," which was already strong in several industrial sectors and has lot of opportunities waiting to be tapped.

She said mega projects such as JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) aided 560-km Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor, development of Ponneri near here as an industrial node which would nurture industrial activity around and the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor were expected to aid growth of the state.

The conceptual plan for Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor which is the East Coast Economic Corridor linking Kolkata via Chennai till Tuticorin is ready. "Activities are moving very fast and it will soon come to the stage of execution."

She also said the Centre has accorded in-principle nod for the Hosur Engineering cluster proposal of the state.

Noting that manufacturing sector's contribution to the GDP was 17 per cent in the country but was higher in other countries (Thailand 36 per cent), she underscored the need for placing thrust on manufacturing and said Tamil Nadu was well placed to achieve such a higher level.

The state has an action plan aimed at rationalisation and simplification of procedures, improving investor facilitation, skill development, providing state of art infrastructure and creating a supportive regulatory and policy environment.

Investor facilitation cell and single-window clearance had already been established in the state, she said adding Tamil Nadu was the second largest economy in terms of gross State Domestic Product among Indian states (2013-14).

"Tamil Nadu is already strong in major industrial sectors like automobiles, auto-components, engineering goods leather, textiles and information technology other than bio-technology," the Union Minister said.

The "response of investors seen here" validates the positive outlook of Tamil Nadu government as an investment destination, she said.

It attracted higher proposals, IEMs (Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum) s compared with other industrialised states like Haryana, erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. However, Maharashtra and Gujarat continued to attract higher investment intentions during April-July 2015, she said.

Citing statistics, she said the state had been a good FDI destination, with foreign equity flow receipt by RBI Chennai since 2000 comprising about 7 per cent of the total foreign equity flow received cumulatively.

"Tamil Nadu is ranked third next only to Maharashtra and National Capital Region of Delhi in terms of cumulative FDI since April 2000. The absolute inflow of foreign equity by RBI Chennai was 3,818 million USD in 2014-15 and in 2015-16 till June about 924 Million USD," she said.