Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam today met a business delegation from Malaysia and invited investors to explore opportunities in the state, which he claims has a huge potential in in agro-food processing, petrochemicals, automobiles and infrastructure.
The business delegation was led by Chief Minister of Malaysia's Perak State, Seri DiRaja Zambry Bin Abdul Kadir.
Noting that the Indian community in Malaysia was well established in trade and industry, Panneerselvam in an official release said there were nearly three lakh people of Indian origin in Perak State, which is more than 12 per cent of the population.
In his brief interaction with the Malaysian delegation, Panneerselvam said Chennai was India's automobile hub with several global brands having manufacturing units similar to Perak State, which is also home for the largest facility to make Proton cars.
"There are huge business opportunities in agro-food processing, chemicals and petrochemicals, automobiles and auto components and infrastructure that can be explored between our two States", he said.
Referring to the Global Investors Meet, a three-day conference scheduled to be held in May, Paneerselvam invited the Chief Minister of Perak to lead a business delegation for the meet.
On his third visit to Chennai, Seri DiRaja Zambry Bin Abdul Kadir said many of the early migrants from Tamil Nadu to Malaysia went to his state, a leading economic powerhouse.
"Now the industrial base is much more diversified and the opportunities for collaboration exist in the area of automobile industry, tourism, green industries and also in films, including both shooting and technical processing", he said.
Stating that nearly 1,000 Malaysian students study in Chennai taking up medicine and dentistry courses, he said, "Malaysia is also looking to collaborate with Universities in Tamil Nadu for improving the quality of Tamil language teaching and of examination standards in Malaysia."
He also invited Panneerselvam to visit his state.
He was accompanied by Minister for Industry Mohammad Zahir Abdul Khalid, Special Officer to Chief Minister V G Kumar Das and Consul General of Malaysia in Chennai, Chitra Devi Ramiah, it said.
