Chennai: Tamilnadu government on Friday hit out at DMK President MK Stalin on his criticism regarding investments received by the state and gave a detailed picture on the two editions of Global Investors’ Meet held in 2015 and 2019. Industries Minister M C Sampath also slammed Stalin, saying “political vendetta” was behind his criticism the government over the investments front.
Stalin has been critical of Chief Minister K Palaniswami’s recent three nation tour for garnering more investments to the state and demanded a white paper on the investments received from GIM 2015 and 2019. Sampath said Tamilnadu has secured a three-fold increase in investments than those signed during the DMK regime.
Responding to Stalin’s comments on investments received in Tamilnadu, he said since the conduct of the second Global Investors’ Meet in January this year, foundation stone laying ceremony was held for 22 companies while four companies have commenced production.
In an official release, Sampath said Stalin was making “empty noises” on this matter, “unable to tolerate the successful journey of the industries department.” Giving a detailed statement on the investments received, Sampath, quoting RBI data, said between 2006 and 2011 under DMK regime the total foreign direct investments received was just Rs 25,977 crore.
However, the FDI was Rs 1.47 lakh crore from 2011 after the AIADMK came power, he said. On the first edition of GIM inaugurated by the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa (in September 2015), he said 98 memorandum of understanding were signed for a total investment reaching Rs 2.42 lakh crore. He said of the Rs 1.8 lakh crore FDI received in last 18 years, 47 per cent, i.e., Rs 84,269 crore came in during the Global Investors Meet held in 2015 under Jayalalithaa.
The main reason behind receiving such an investment was due to the various tours taken up by Ministers and officials overseas to attract businessmen. “If one does not undertake foreign tours, it will not be possible for a state to attract investments in this competitive world,” he said.
Referring to the data released by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, he said private investments made in Tamil Nadu in the last four years amounted to Rs 1,02,772 crore. From the MoUs signed in 2015 Global Investors Meet, projects totalling Rs 1,04,961 crore were in various stages of execution leading to creation of 1.61 lakh new jobs. On the second edition of GIM held in Janaury 2019, he said the government signed MoUs with 304 companies attracting Rs 3,00,431 crore investments.
“Of this (304), 221 companies have commenced projects and were in various level of execution,” he said. Sampath said CEAT Tyres which announced investment of Rs 4,000 crore was expected to commence operation at its facility near here in October.
Referring to the recent foreign tours of Palaniswami and a host of ministers, he said as many as 41 companies have agreed to commit investments to the tune of Rs 8,835 crore during their visits to UK, US, Dubai among other countries.
Citing a report in Annual Survey of Industries 2015-16 and 2016-17, he said Tamilnadu was ranked first in terms of creating industrial employments. Noting that chief ministers of other states also take up foreign tours and opposition parties there welcomed such initiatives for growth, he said Stalin was however critical of the foreign tour of Palaniswami and others due to “political vendetta.” He said the government would ignore such “empty noises” and continue to take up various measures by explaining the specialities of Tamilnadu in order to attract investments to the state.