TN to draft new industrial policy by year-end

The Tamil Nadu government is in the process of collecting inputs from various industry associations and chambers of commerce across the state to draft a new industrial policy before the end of the current year, said Shaktikanta Das, secretary, industries department, government of Tamil Nadu.

He was addressing a session on 'State Integrated Infrastructure Promotion on Tamil Nadu' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), as part of Suminfra 2006 "� a summit on sustainable public private partnerships in southern states.

The government was forming a task force led by the chief minister to identify the infrastructure challenges facing the industry, he added. Das said the state government was trying to create an enabling and efficient infrastructure for the growth of industrial and service sectors.

The government is focusing on setting up industrial parks, special economic zones, corridors of excellence and satellite towns.

He said adequate attention must be paid to strengthen the human resource infrastructure, one of the main factors that had tilted the scale in favour of Tamil Nadu with respect to the investments made in the state by multinational companies such as Ford, Hyundai, Nokia and Motorola.

The government believes that there is a need to upgrade the industrial training institutes and engineering colleges.

With the emphasis on ensuring an inclusive approach to economic growth, the state was promoting various industrial infrastructure projects at Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and other tier II and tier III cities, he added.