Coimbatore : With industries both from the country and abroad showing keen interest in investing in Tamil Nadu, the forthcoming Global Investors Meet (GIM) scheduled in January next, is expected to receive investment more than that of Rs.2.4 lakh crore achieved in the first Meet in 2015, State Industries minister, M C Sampath said on Sunday.

Talking to reporters here on the sidelines of roadshow for the second edition of GIM to be held on January 23 and 24 next year at Chennai, Sampath said that during his visit to many foreign countries, including Thailand, Thaiwan, Japan,Singapore for conducting roadshows, industries there were upbeat about the.GIM and assured to  participate and invest in various sectors.

Similarly, industrialists in Ahmedabad in Gujarat also assured to invest about rs.20,000 crore, considering the conductive industrial climate, he said.

Sampath said that the last GIM has attracted  98 big projects, of which 68 are under implementation with an investment of Rs.62,738 crore.

With regard to investment from foreign countries, he said that almost all the industrialists showed keen interest to invest in the State and was blaming the State for arriving late with the offer, saying that the Government should have approached some 10 to 15 years ago.

Stating that Tamil Nadu, by manufacturing 16 lakh cars, stood among top 10 in automobile sector across the World, Sampath said that the Government was ready to talk one to one with the industries, taking into account of the volume of investment and scope for workers.

When pointed out that the government was showing partiality to Coimbatore compared to Chennai, he denied the allegation and said that many industries were approved in the district  without any bias.

 Sampath urged the industries in Coimbatore district to see to it that at least Rs.20,000 investment happened from here.

 State Rural Industries minister, P Benjamin said that with the introduction of Business Facilitation Act to simplify the approval through single window
system, the government has approved 132 application out of 181 received worth Rs.372.76 crore so far.

He also sought to dispel the reports going rounds that industrial climate in Tamil Nadu was not conducive and pointed out that the State was in top three position in 12 industrial sectors.

The investment for GIM was not for industry alone, but will be open to infrastructure, education, health and other sectors also, he said.