Second edition of GIM to attract more investment: TN Min

With industries from the country and abroad evincing interest to invest in Tamil Nadu, the forthcoming Global Investors Meet (GIM) is expected to attract more investment than the first meet in 2015, state Industries minister M C Sampath said Sunday.

He said that during his visit to foreign countries for conducting roadshows, industries had assured him that they would invest in various sectors in the state, but that such a meet should have been held 10 to 15 years back.

Sampath was talking to reporters here on the sidelines of roadshow for the second edition of GIM to be held on January 23 and 24 in Chennai.

Industrialists in Gujarat have also assured to invest about Rs 20,000 crore, considering the conducive industrial climate in the state, he said.

Noting that last GIM attracted 98 big projects, he said 68 were under implementation, with an investment of Rs 62,738 crore.

On the charge that the state government was focussing more on Coimbatore district than Chennai, he denied it and said the government gave approval to set up industries in the district without any bias.

State Rural Industries minister, P Benjamin said with the introduction of Business Facilitation Act to simplify the approval through single window system, the government has approved 132 applications out of 181 received so far.

Seeking to dispel the reports doing rounds that industrial climate in Tamil Nadu was not conducive, the Minister claimed that the state was among the top three in 12 industrial sectors.