TN aims to be top three investment destinations

Chief minister J Jayalalithaa releases Tamil Nadu Vision 2023

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday released the Tamil Nadu Vision 2023, envisaging the state to become number one in economic and social indicators and one of the top three investment destinations in Asia by 2023. The initiatives would require an investment of Rs 15 lakh crore, of which majority is expected to flow from non-governmental sources, including private sector, banks and foreign direct investment.

In her presidential address, Jayalalithaa said, “I am confident that Tamil Nadu will be able to increase its per capita income at today’s prices by six times to reach Rs 4,50,000 or $10,000 in 2023, in line with the per capita income of upper middle income countries.”

In the next 11 years, it would aim to increase its gross state domestic product (GSDP) at a growth rate of 11 per cent or more per annum, about 20 per cent more than the expected growth rate of India’s GDP over the same period.

To facilitate uninterrupted power with stable quality, the state would build 20,000 Mw additional power generation capacity in the next 10 years.

While the government alone could not meet the resource requirements, it would play a central role of a procurer of infrastructure services on behalf of the people and facilitate private investment and service delivery in the infrastructure sector. The government’s role would focus on planning, effective regulation and facilitation, while the private sector would be welcomed in the area of service delivery.

“Under the PPP mode, the government will play the role of a change agent and will originate infrastructure projects in line with Vision 2023, and will also focus on the important functions of regulation and overall governance,” she said.

“Attaining one among the top three positions in Asia would be tantamount to benchmarking Tamil Nadu with countries such as South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, which are ranked 8, 17 and 18 respectively in the world by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in its study on ‘Ease of Doing Business’,” said Jayalalithaa.

The vision envisages developing 10 world class cities, essentially existing towns whose infrastructure could be upgraded significantly, which would become the nuclei and engines of economic growth, thereby facilitating regional and balanced development across the state.

It looks at training and equipping 20 million persons with skills over the next 11 years to ensure availability of trained, knowledgeable and skilled manpower. Ten or more top of the league institutions would be established as centres of excellence in various fields that will attract the best talents from across the world.

It would also focus on improving agricultural productivity by introducing scientific methods, build an institutional network to support, 100 per cent access to safe sanitation, construct 2.5 million houses for the poor to make the state slum-free and hut-free, and make efforts to achieve universal secondary education, and increase enrolment in colleges including vocational education to over 50 per cent, the document stated.