Chennai: The Global Investors Meet 2019 begins its two-day marathon mission on Wednesday to bring in massive investments from across the globe into Tamil Nadu and perhaps redeem the state’s slipped-up ranking as an investment destination.
The government is eying to sign about 140 MoUs worth over Rs 2.4 trillion — the amount it claims was committed during the maiden summit in 2015.
The MoUs in the pipeline include those with Adani Port, Hyundai, GMR, Saint Gobain and Indian Oil Corporation’s subsidiary, among others.
During the last one month, the state cabinet cleared investment proposals worth Rs 65,000 crore, which are expected to be signed at GIM 2019. The proposals include a Rs 27,450 crore project by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) arm, Chennai Petroleum Corporation (CPCL) and Hyundai’s Rs 7,000 crore investment plan.
Karan Adani, CEO of Adani Ports and SEZs, is likely to participate in the meet and his company may sign a MoU involving Kattupalli Port, say sources. The company had filed a revised master plan with the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. As per the plan, the company is looking at expanding total cargo handling capacity at Kattupalli (North of Chennai) to 320 million tonnes (MT) from the existing 24.65 MT.
GIM was the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s pet project and the last one was held in 2015. Opposition parties and unbiased critics have poked fun at the spectacular claims made by the AIADMK government post-GIM2015 and alleged that a good chunk of the promised investments never came, thanks to the unhelpful attitude of the government and the scary industrial relations-the number of industry-crippling agitations have been on the increase.
Investments of over Rs 19,500 crore were committed in 2015 but only a few worth Rs 501 crore materialised. And TN got ejected out of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s top 10 investment destinations last year-slipping to the 12th slot and accounting for a mere 0.79 per cent of the total investments in India in 2017, after being in the list of top-10 in 2015.
Also, the promise of holding the GIM once in two years was not kept. If it was Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016, multiple factors causing protests in the state and crippling some critically important industries-such as Sterlite in Thoothukudi-have made investors wary of TN as a safe destination.
