Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday laid the foundation stone and inaugurated projects worth Rs. 70,000 crore that will provide job opportunities for over one lakh people. DMK chief Stalin laid the foundation stone for 28 projects with an investment of Rs 51,157 crore. With investment in various industries, including textiles, food processing, and pharma.
Speaking during the Tamil Nadu Investors Conclave on Wednesday here in Chennai, Stalin recalled how the state government has been making concerted efforts to realise the MoUs signed during the Global Investors Meet (GIM), held in January this year, to actual investments. Around 631 MoUs worth Rs 6.64 lakh crore were signed during the third edition of the GIM in January 2024.
Urging the investors to bring in more investments to Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Stalin said, “In the last three years nearly Rs 9.74 lakh crore has been invested to provide direct and indirect employment to about 31 lakh persons. You should be the business ambassadors of the State.”
Speaking during the conclave, B Santhanam, CEO (Asia-Pacific) of Saint-Gobain, mentioned the investor-friendly climate in Tamil Nadu. Recalling that the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi inaugurated the company’s first factory at an investment of Rs 525 crore 24 years ago, he said Saint-Gobain has since invested 10X that amount.
The company signed an MoU for Rs. 3,400 crore worth of projects 11 months ago. Of this, projects worth Rs 800 crore are at an advanced stage of completion, Santhanam added. “If you want sustainable manufacturing in any part of the world, you have to come to Tamil Nadu. Power is already 50 per cent green. By 2026, the company will have 75 per cent renewable energy, and this is possible for a power-intensive company like Saint-Gobain in Tamil Nadu,” he said while mentioning that 60 per cent of the company’s investment in India is in Tamil Nadu.
Addressing the investors during the conclave Vipul Thuli, CEO (South Asia) Hydrogen Business, SembCorp Industries Ltd, called Tamil Nadu as the pioneer in wind energy. “With the new investment in hydrogen, Tamil Nadu will be a pioneer in this area also,” he said. Sembcorp is setting up a green hydrogen and green ammonia plant in Thoothukudi. The project will involve Tamil Nadu, Singapore and Japan. The partners in the project include Kyushu Electric Power Co, Sojitz of Japan, and NYK Shipping Line of Japan. The company has secured land at Tuticorin port. The offtake agreement was signed on Tuesday in Delhi. Sembcorp has elaborate plans for hydrogen energy manufacturing and also storage plans.
Apart from Sembcorp and Saint-Gobain, several global industrial giants including facilities of Japan’s Omron Healthcare, Motherson Electronics, L&T Innovation Campus, Sundaram Fasteners, Royal Enfield and Milky Mist were inaugurated by Stalin during the conclave. Stalin also broke the ground for 27 other projects including Saint Gobain, Maple Tree, Ramatex, Tata Communications and Schwing Stetter.
Stalin also laid the foundation stone for a common engineering facility centre called Tamil Nadu Engineering and Innovation Center (TN ENGINE), a collaboration between the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and Tata Technologies, which will come up at the Anna University campus in Coimbatore.