TN Govt to form 22 new industrial estates

Chennai, June 19 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Government has drawn out plans to establish 22 new industrial estates in the State in the near future, Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Coporation (TANSIDCO) Chairman and Managing Director Rajendran said today.

Inaugurating ACMEE 2008, the eighth biennial edition of International Auto Components and Machine Tools Exhibition here, he said there were 78 industrial estates promoted by TANSIDCO and the Government proposed to set up 22 more soon.

The five-day ACMEE 2008 was the biggest engineering exhibition in South India organised by Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association (AIEMA) and AIEMA Technology Centre (ATC) at Chennai Trade Centre here.

''If industry has to grow, medium and small industries must grow.

Our prime focus is on promoting the small industries sector by providing concessions,'' Mr Rajendran said.

The concessions were given to the small and medium industries in the form of capital subsidy, sales tax waiver, electricity subsidy, and stamp duty concessions, he said.

''Exhibitions play a vital role not only in business growth and development, but also in attracting foreign exchange. The success of these kinds of exhibitions is not only in the number of stalls and visitors, but the business generated. The business has increased from Rs 40 lakh in 1994 to Rs 15 crore in 2006,'' he said.

Speaking at the inaugural function, SPIC Chairman A C Muthiah said that on the canvas of the Indian economy, auto industry occupied a prominent place. This sector had been growing at 20 per cent per annum since 2000 and was projected to maintain the high-growth phase of 15 to 20 per cent till 2015.

The industry crossed a total turnover of more than Rs 64,500 crore, with exports of Rs 12,643 crore during 2006-07. Export of auto components had been growing at 24 per cent per annum since 2000, he said.

Sustained growth in exports for another five years would see India's auto component exports touch five billion US Dollars by 2011 from the two billion at present, he said.

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