The Hindu Business Line : `Time ripe for southern districts in TN to attract investments'

SPEEDING UP: The Tamil Nadu Minister for Health, Mr K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, going around an exhibition after inaugurating `Connect Madurai' on Friday. At right is Mr T. Kannan, Chairman of SPEED 2006. — K. Ganesan.

Madurai , Dec. 1

Time chose to date with Madurai and the other southern districts to unfold the inherent strengths of the region to prospective investors in IT, IT-enabled services and the manufacturing sector at the three-day `SPEED 2006 (Southern Prosperity Through Enhanced Economic Development -2006)' exhibition-cum-conference which opened today at the Tamukkam grounds here.

The meet is organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and co-sponsored by the Tamil Nadu Government.

The opportune moment has arrived for the southern districts to prosper in terms of attracting investments to the region, given its low land and living costs, skilled, co-operative and peace loving manpower and on-going infrastructure development to provide connectivity through air, road and port facilities, said the Tamil Nadu Minister for Health, Mr K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, in his special address at the inaugural session on `Connect Madurai'.

Appreciating the lead taken by the industrial houses in the region to showcase Madurai and the south, he assured fullest co-operation to the efforts.

Speaking earlier, Dr C. Chandramouli, IT Secretary, said the contribution from the IT sector in the State to national exports was 14 per cent and a target of 25 per cent has been visualised. Enquiries have been pouring in for investments at Chennai.The Government, however, wanted the IT revolution to spread to other cities and the prime movers of investment would find the value growing, he pointed out.

IT academy

An IT academy under public-private partnership is being set up to look into the curriculum, training, content development for improving skill levels.

In association with NASSCOM, steps are being taken to provide training and certification to make the graduates from the engineering colleges employable. The Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu is working on improving the IT skills in rural areas, he added.

Mr Shaktikanta Das, Industries Secretary, in his address said as per the statistics of the Indian Government, 318 projects worth Rs 11,500 crore were in the pipeline for the State and if half of them could be attracted to the southern districts, employment to 1.6 lakh people, both direct and indirect could be provided.

Steps are being initiated to set up an IT Park in tier II cities. To enable growth, textile parks are also being encouraged. The power sector in the State is being strengthened, he added.

The Chairman of SPEED 2006, Mr T. Kannan, cited the strong educational base in the south, providing manpower to industries at Chennai and Bangalore. He asked investors to take advantage of the potential by opening their units in thesouthern districts of the State.

Mr R. Dinesh, Co-Chairman of SPEED 2006, Mr Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman, CONNECT 2006, Mr R. Ravi, Managing Director, RR Industries and Mr C. Ramachandran, Chairman, ETL Infrastructure Services Ltd, also spoke.