Tamil Nadu and Singapore firms ink investment deals

BENGALURU - Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin met Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran in Singapore on Wednesday during an investment meeting organised by the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) in collaboration with Guidance Tamil Nadu and several Singapore government agencies.

Mr Stalin is on an official tour of Singapore and Japan to attract more investments to Tamil Nadu. He met top officials of various firms in Singapore to invite them to an investor conclave scheduled in Chennai next January.

After the meetings, Mr Stalin tweeted that he was delighted to meet his “long-time friend”, Mr Iswaran. He added that his talks with Temasek executive director Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, Sembcorp group president Wong Kim Yin and CapitaLand’s India head Sanjeev Dasgupta “reaffirmed the longstanding relations between Tamil Nadu and Singapore”. 

CapitaLand India Trust announced a total investment of 19.4 billion rupees (S$316.6 million) over the next five years to develop a data centre in Ambattur, Chennai, its third in India. The company had established Chennai’s first IT business park. 

Among the memorandums of understanding (MOUs) signed was an agreement between SICCI and Guidance Tamil Nadu, the nodal agency for investment promotion in the southern Indian state, to work on business delegations to each other’s country. 

A statement from SICCI said MOUs were also signed for projects such as a sustainable industrial park in Tamil Nadu, a manufacturing facility in Chengalpattu in Kanchipuram district, digitalising micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and partnering Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education on skills training and staff capability development. 

Tamil Nadu Minister of Industries T.R.B. Rajaa was also in Singapore. A senior official from his ministry told The Straits Times that he had invited Singapore businesses to invest in the state in core areas such as electric vehicle and automobile manufacturing, electronic component production, infrastructure like industrial parks, fintech, health tech and clean energy projects.

Tamil Nadu has the largest number of factories in India, at almost 39,000, followed by the state of Gujarat with around 29,000. Tamil Nadu boasts 34 industrial clusters and 42 special economic zones. 

The state has seen a spurt in the number of manufacturing units, with 45 per cent growth from 2019 to 2020, as per the latest available data. Mr Stalin has said he wants to achieve a trillion-dollar economy for Tamil Nadu by 2030. To meet the target, he will need additional investments worth 45 trillion rupees. 

Senior Tamil Nadu government officials positioned the southern Indian state, the country’s second-largest economy after Maharashtra, as “a strategic location to access South-east Asia”, with four international airports, two domestic airports and four major sea ports. 

The state is offering incentives like the extension of single-window clearances for small and medium-sized enterprises, round-the-clock power and capital subsidies.

SICCI chairman Neil Parekh said: “Singapore entrepreneurs often need help with bottlenecks after signing MOUs, and guidance when dealing with banks and government agencies. We are delighted to hear from the Chief Minister and his team that the Tamil Nadu government will work closely with us to enhance bilateral economic trade and investments.”