The Hindu Business Line : CII agenda for TN: Think big, think global

'LEVERAGE competitiveness: Scale up now.' This will be the theme of Confederation of Indian Industry - Tamil Nadu for 2005-06, as it hopes to capitalise on the gains made in the State in the last couple of years.

CII-TN believes that its theme for the year continues on the themes adopted over the past few years and the groundwork has been done for the State to push ahead.

For this to happen, the State has to scale up now, according to Mr B. Santhanam, who has taken over as Chairman, CII-TN.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr Santhanam said Tamil Nadu was ready to take off and for this to happen, all concerned, especially industry and the Government, had to think global.

For 2005-06, the focus areas would be: SURGE (Sustainable Urban Renewal Growth and Expansion), Vision 2015 (based on an auto sector report), Showcase (marketing the State and cities), SPEED (Southern Prosperity through Enhanced Economic Development), Ski Up (Skill Upgradation) and enhance competitiveness.

CII-TN's message to all the stakeholders - its own members, the Government, larger industries and the general public - was to focus on speed and catalyse execution. "The emphasis is on scale, doing it now and leveraging competitiveness," Mr Santhanam said.

On showcasing the State, Mr Santhanam, who is Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd, said it is time to "go to the rooftops and start talking about it (the State's strengths)."

CII-TN believed that the potential of different cities could be highlighted.

Apart from Chennai, with its large manufacturing base and IT and IT-enabled services, potential of other cities - Coimbatore for auto, IT, healthcare and engineering; Tiruchi for energy capital, ITES and agri-business; Madurai for tourism, select manufacturing and ITES; and Tuticorin for exports, services and logistics - should be highlighted.

Tiruchi could be re-positioned as the energy capital of the State while Madurai's inner tourism potential could be tapped.

For Chennai, CII-TN believed that a services business district - the Guindy industrial estate - could be developed, highlighting its advantages.

The CII-TN felt that its report on industrialisation of the southern districts had to be followed up. It was of the view that the State Government was also keen on this and the Government might shortly constitute a task force to push forward with this agenda.

Like its report on the auto sector released recently, CII-TN would like to come out with a similar report for another sector this year.

Mr Santhanam felt that the next report could be on the textile and textile processing sectors, which were traditional areas of strength for the State.

For this, the study could use a report prepared by the Indian Cotton Mills' Federation on the opportunities for the textiles sector in the country to come out with a State-specific agenda.

On city specific agendas, CII-TN had commissioned a study to transform Avinashi Road in Coimbatore and would also like to tap the potential offered by the Madurai by-pass road.

Mr Santhanam said that as part of the auto vision 2015, the first step that was needed was a marketing task force that would be created by the Government and supported by the industry.

Besides, policy initiatives such as performance related incentives for manufacturing exporters were also needed.

A key initiative would be to ensure that an automobile test track facility being proposed by the Centre was set up in Chennai's vicinity.

Mr Santhanam said Nokia's decision to set up a mobile handset manufacturing plant near Chennai would provide a major boost to hardware manufacture in the State.

The hardware manufacturers association in the country - MAIT - had written to CII to see if some hardware companies from China and Taiwan could be wooed to the State.

CII-TN will organise conferences and events in different parts of the State.

This includes a conference on `Tamil Nadu leveraging trade agreement for growth' in June and one on `Business opportunities in biotechnology' in July, both in Chennai; a programme on `CNC technology - achieving operational excellence' in July and another on `Pumps and motors' in September, both in Coimbatore.

Apart from Connect2005, an annual event on information technology that will be held in September in Chennai, CII-TN will hold Energex2005 in August and Agricon in February 2006, both in Tiruchi.

The events for the year will conclude with a `Growth summit: The challenge of growth' slated for February 2006 in Chennai.

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