Chennai: The TVK-led government has come under fire from the opposition DMK after three South Korean component manufacturers that supply Hyundai and Kia, after holding discussions with officials from Tamil Nadu, picked Andhra Pradesh for expansion projects worth a combined Rs 1,614 crore.
Hwashin, Seoyon and Iwamet have signed MoUs with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up facilities in Anantapur, estimated to generate 1,418 jobs.
Hwashin has committed Rs 850 crore, Seoyon Rs 514 crore and Iwamet Rs 250 crore to Andhra Pradesh. The projects are expected to strengthen Anantapur’s auto-components ecosystem near Kia’s existing plant. Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh’s visit to South Korea in July and sustained follow-up by the state’s Economic Development Board led to Andhra Pradesh securing these investments, it is learnt.
Earlier, officials from Tamil Nadu had held a second round of discussions with representatives of all three companies. The first round of discussions were held during the tenure of the previous DMK government.
The DMK alleged Monday that Guidance Tamil Nadu, the state’s investment promotion agency, did not respond to queries on the development of discussions held earlier with the companies.
Hwashin and Seoyon already operate units in Sriperumbudur and Krishnagiri, while Iwamet had registered an entity here.
Earlier this month, Mahindra Group and Brazilian aerospace major Embraer identified Nagpur in Maharashtra as the potential site for a Final Assembly Line (FAL) for the C-390 Millennium military transport aircraft in India, which was earlier pitched by Tamil Nadu.
Before that, Andhra Pradesh secured Royal Enfield’s proposed expansion of around Rs 2,200 crore and a Haier electronics plant valued at about Rs 7,000 crore. Both instances were cited as a loss for Tamil Nadu.
DMK president M.K. Stalin cited the loss of investment, coupled with Tamil Nadu’s October GST revenue growth of just 3 percent, to accuse Chief Minister C. Vijay Joseph’s government of “indifference”.
He alleged that Guidance Tamil Nadu, which had previously helped attract investments, had been “sacrificed to individual egos” under the present government. Stalin criticised CM Vijay for focusing on bypoll campaigning instead of addressing these issues, alleging that “Tamil Nadu is doomed under the TVK government”, and that the state was moving in “reverse gear”.
BJP Tamil Nadu chief spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy, too, said the TVK-led government had failed to convert earlier discussions and the companies’ existing presence in the state into future commitments. “Tamil Nadu’s TVK government stood by while ready investments walked away, leaving the factories and the jobs to a neighbouring state that acted. Shame on you,” he said, noting Andhra Pradesh’s higher-level outreach under Nara Lokesh.
In earlier responses to similar criticism over investments shifting to Andhra Pradesh and other states, Tamil Nadu Industries Minister S. Keerthana had insisted that the state did not lose any projects after the TVK-led government took charge. She also claimed that more than 25 potential investors did not opt for Tamil Nadu due to corruption and negligence of the previous DMK government.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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