Magnitude of GIM was most impressive: Venu Srinivasan

Chennai: Venu Srinivasan, Chairman of the TVS Motor Company, was a prominent industrialist from the city at the Global Investors Meet last week. He believes Tamil Nadu has made a great start in getting competitive about attracting industrial and business investments to a state which offers several obvious advantages for industry. Excerpts from his interview with Deccan Chronicle

The sheer magnitude of the event was most impressive. There can be a lot of hyperbole about such events. But you must remember Tamil Nadu is the first southern state to put up an event on such a scale. The success is not to be judged only by the investment figures that come out of such investor meets. The first GIM in Tamil Nadu was also very impressive on the count of the investments promised. I believe that in the years to come a lot of the investments will come in. Besides what has been promised, the big takeaway is probably the kind of investments the MSME sector is likely to attract as judged from GIM, as aewll as a diverse set of businesses like IT and ITeS. In terms of employment potential, such investments will play a huge role in creating jobs.

I don’t believe you have to bring in any politics into these things. In India we have a very competitive environment now. There is such fierce competition between Andhra and Telangana which is aiming at and taking away many investments coming to the south of the country. Unless we as a state also compete by putting up investment meetings and offering incentives and infrastructure we cannot expect people to come calling on us o put their money here. I think it was very timely that Tamil Nadu came up with its first GIM now.

As a state we have to compete for investments now. ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ was not marketed in a day. They have been at it for at least 10 years with the chief secretary and the industries secretary and other top bureaucrats visiting about 30 countries on a regular basis to invite investments. They were promised about Rs 25 lakh crores at various investment meets hosted and a lot of the money trickled in over the years to make Gujarat such an industrialised state. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are other states that have canvassed actively for investments offering many incentives as an attraction. Tamil Nadu has taken the lead in the south now, which represents a great start.

The Chief Minister’s presence on two successive days was the clear highlight. That she spent so much time on the event was the clearest sign that showcased her enthusiasm to the world. There were so many industrialists from South East Asia. The business and industry community from all parts of India was also extremely well represented. The clarity of the CM’s speech, the ideas she put forward and the promises made were certain to have inspired many of the visitors to put up their hands for investment in the state as evidenced in the '2.4 lakh crore promised.

Infrastructure is not really great in Karnataka or Andhra for that matter. Tamil Nadu has a port that is attached to a major city and I think that is a very important factor. The only competition we have is the Sri City near a port just north of Chennai because Visakhaptanam is overcrowded and has little spare capacity. To have a metropolis with a port is a phenomenal advantage on this coast. The state has a huge set of skilled labour plus bright engineering and other graduates coming out of colleges. We have better infra than most states and we probably have to compete with Hyderabad as an investment venue on this count. But, in the long run, Tamil Nadu has a bright chance of bringing in business and industrial investments.