When Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami leaves later this month for a 10-day visit to the United Kingdom and the United States to attract industrial investments, he will be the first Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to go to the West in 40 years. On Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs formally gave its clearance for the CM’s visit. Now, the file will make its way to the Prime Minister’s Office for final approval from PM Narendra Modi.
Between late October and early December in 1978, M.G. Ramachandran, as Chief Minister, undertook a five-week-long trip to the US, Japan and Singapore for attracting investments to Tamil Nadu. In January 1999, M. Karunanidhi made a three-day trip to Singapore and interacted with representatives of the business community. In July 1970, he went to Europe on a three-week-long visit for a similar purpose.
As per the present plan, Mr. Palaniswami will leave for London on August 28 and return to Chennai on September 7. In the US, he will go to New York and California to hold interactions with representatives of business and industry. There will also be separate meetings with potential investors who hail from Tamil Nadu. In January last, the State government held the second edition of the Global Investors’ Meet.
The Chief Minister will be accompanied by Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar in the UK leg of the trip, while the Ministers for Industry, Information Technology and Dairy Development — M.C. Sampath, R.B. Udhayakumar and K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji — will accompany Mr. Palaniswami in the US. Besides, Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam, Secretaries to CM and secretaries of the departments concerned will be part of the contingent.
Expressing confidence that the visit would yield benefits for the State, senior government officials handling the visit point out that a high-profile trip is bound to generate greater visibility for the State, apart from those at the helm of affairs getting first-hand knowledge of the state of affairs of various sectors in a country like the US.