TN govt to set up Taiwanese industrial park near Chennai

CHENNAI: To attract foreign investment and technological know-how in key industries, Tamil Nadu govt will establish an industrial park near Chennai for Taiwanese suppliers and component makers in electronics, technical textiles and non-leather footwear, industries minister T R B Raaja announced in the assembly on Friday.

It is expected to attract investments to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore and has potential for creating 20,000 jobs.

Later, Raaja told the press that as the electronics, non-leather footwear industry in the state expands, a lot of Taiwanese companies have shown interest to invest. “There is a demand for creating a cluster of industries at a single location,” he said. Tamil Nadu has seen a lot of investments from Taiwan in recent years.

Replying to the debate on the demand for grants for the industries department, Rajaa announced a slew of industrial parks, including setting up of Sipcot Tex in Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin. The effort is to diversify the state's textile industry and these parks will be established along with industry bodies. They will have plug and play facilities and focus on readymade textiles.

Sipcot industrial park will be set up at Chinnasalem in Kallakurichi (450 acres), Sankarankovil in Tenkasi (150 acres), Karaikudi in Sivakasi (100 acres) and Vellore (250 acres). They are expected to bring cumulative investments of Rs 1,650 crore and 19,000 potential jobs. Govt will also establish a 125-acre non-leather footwear park in Tirupattur, which is expected to bring ₹250 crore investments, and establish a Neo-Tidel park in industrially backward Nagapattinam.

“Tamil Nadu global investor’s meet 2024 had received commitment of Rs 6.64 lakh crore investments and the state has converted 72% of them into actual investment. It is a remarkable rate of conversion,” the minister said.

“The GIM 2019 (held during the AIADMK govt) has a conversion of 36.23% despite the efforts made by our govt subsequently. Since 2021, our govt has inked 897 MoUs, attracting Rs10,27,547 crore investments, out of which 722 MoUs has been materialised with the companies beginning construction or rolling out products,” Raaja said.

In a change from the past, in four years southern Tamil Nadu received 30.32% of the investments into the state with an industrial boom happening in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli, he said, adding that the delta districts have received Rs 35,000 crore investment.

Raaja said Samsung has decided to make an additional investment of Rs 1,000 crore in the state. He said Guidance desks will be set up in the US, Germany, South Korea and Vietnam and the previously announced Japan desk will start functioning in May.