Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu Exec. Chairman and CEO & MD Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd.
It has been a great year for CII. 2018-19 witnessed several landmark initiatives including membership engagement. We held a series of Members meet, new member induction programmes, road shows. Over 645 member outreach programmes were organised at the premises of member companies.
The launch of new Yi chapters in Puducherry and Thoothukudi and the new IWN chapter in Erode helped us to strengthen our engagement with next-gen leaders in tier II towns. New initiatives such as CFO, CPO and CTO Forums created several new touch points with the membership.
During the year, 60 exclusive interactions held across South India with diplomats and overseas dignitaries from 32 countries spanning 5 continents impacted 5250 members in exploring new business opportunities in new and emerging markets.
Improving competitiveness
CII Southern Region will align with the CII National theme: ‘Competitiveness of India Inc. India@75: Forging Ahead’. The Regional Sub-Committees and Task Forces will form the implementing arm of the theme enablers driven by the leadership from industry and the Secretariat.
Balanced development of the Southern Region Balanced Regional Development is the key to sustainable, socio-economic development and inclusive growth of the country. This is also one of the critical priorities of CII. Skill development, employment generation, encouraging rural entrepreneurship besides promotion of backward districts should be the focus of all the states in the region towards ensuring balanced growth.
Strategy and vision for southern states Southern states are doing better in terms of Ease of Doing Business, evident in the EoDB rankings. I would like to mention that EoDB has been a thrust area of focus for the CII Southern Region in the last few years. As an outcome of CII recommendation, Single Window Portal on EoDB has been launched in all southern state governments. CII feels that effective monitoring of the implementation of single window system besides promoting e-governance and digitisation across government departments would further help EoDB implementation.
For more investments Since the 1970s, Western region, especially Gujarat and Maharashtra have given much focus to chemicals and petroleum sector and have become a natural habitat for this sector. However, the KG Basin in Andhra, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu have a high potential to boost the petrochemicals sector in the Southern region. The proposed Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) and more focused policies and development of infrastructure will help the petrochemicals sector to flourish and provide huge employment here.
Improving the competitiveness With over 31 per cent share of FDI flow in India, 29 per cent of the contribution of India’s GDP and 1/3 share of India’s exports, Southern Region continues to play a significant role in India’s progress. Southern region has abundant human resource and skilled workforce. But, the disruptive business environment and changing industry dynamics are going to change the way organisations function today. There is a need to upgrade the skills we have and also provide the students with skills that industry needs in this disruptive era.
