Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on Sunday that his recent visits to Singapore and Japan were meant to invite industrialists in person to invest in Tamil Nadu.
“Following Tamil culture, we invited the investors in person. Guests will not visit a house without invitation,” he said, in a veiled reference to Governor R.N. Ravi’s remarks on his foreign visits. The Chief Minister was speaking at a function here after inaugurating completed projects and laying the foundation for new ones in Salem district.
Mr. Stalin said, “Through my visits [to Singapore and Japan], agreements were signed for ₹3,000 crore in investments. Most of the companies expressed their willingness to take part in the Global Investors Meet to be held in Chennai in January 2024.”
Chennai, he said, is an attractive destination for global investors and Japanese companies are already operating in Tamil Nadu. “In keeping with Tamil culture, we met them [the investors] and invited them to invest in the State, highlighting the good environment prevailing in the State under the Dravidian Model government,” he said. “No guest will visit a house without invitation. However, there are some groups in Tamil Nadu which are trying to belittle it [his foreign visits]. I do not want to waste my time replying to them,” he said.
Mr. Stalin said the AIADMK government from 2011 to 2021 had ruined the State by blindly following the Union government’s commands. “We lost the GST rights, and now we are unable to get the required funds. Because of UDAY [Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana], we are forced to change the electricity tariff at regular intervals. We have reduced the revenue deficit. At the same time, we announce new schemes,” he said.
‘Number one State’
“In the last two years, we have announced projects that would have taken five years. That is the reason we are recognised as the number one State and [I am recognised] as the number one Chief Minister. I alone did not bring it off; the efforts of the Ministers and officials also helped,” he said.
Ministers Duraimurugan, M.R.K. Panneerselvam, K.N. Nehru, S. Regupathy, M. Mathiventhan; MLAs R. Rajendran, R. Arul, and S. Sathasivam; and Collector S. Karmegam and other officials took part at the function.
