M Ponnuswami, Past Chairman, CII (TN), CMD Pon Pure Chemical India Private Ltd
In March 2017, as Vice Chairman of CII (TN), I represented to Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan on rebranding the state. This required a transparent system of single window clearance for setting up industrial units. She agreed to broach this idea to the Chief Minister. In parallel, we also met several ministers pursuing the proposal.
Happily, a year later, we got the green signal for the project.The Business Facilitation Act 2018 came into force in January 2018. In the same Act, a separate portal for facilitating business by MSME units was included.
The Tamil Nadu Guidance Bureau has so far facilitated 241 project proposals involving Rs 78,225 crore through single window facilitation.
CII worked for the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet for over a year. Road shows were conducted in several cities both in India and abroad. Detailed presentations were made on the attractions of investing in Tamil Nadu. The systematic approach led by the Additional Chief Secretary K Gnanadesikan and supported by the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues resulted in attracting investment commitments of over Rs 3 lakh crore.
CII TN conducted many seminars related to GIM through 2018. One of these was on a Chemvision for the state. The Chennai Petrochemical Corporation Ltd (CPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation have committed significant investments including a 9 million tonne refinery. We are persisting in our efforts to get a naphtha cracker for the state to utilise the vast surplus quantities of naphtha produced in the state.
