To coincide with the NEB meeting in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Region organized a meeting with the Chief Minister of the state at the government secretariat. Several members of the National Executive Board led by Mr Arun Kumar, Vice Chairman, AMCHAM and Chairman and CEO, KPMG in India, called on the Chief Minister. Consul General Robert Burgess and Mr. Robert Kemp, Acting Minister Counselor EEST, U.S. Embassy were part of the AMCHAM delegation.

The Tamil Nadu government was represented by Mr. MC Sampath, Minister for Industry, Ms. Girija Vaidyanathan, Chief Secretary, Mr. Atulya Misra, Principal Secretary, Industries Department, Mr. M.S. Shanmugam, Additional Secretary, Industries Department, Ms. Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, Executive Vice Chairperson, Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance Bureau, Ms R. Vasuki, Managing Director, SIPCOT, Mr. B. Elangovan, Managing Director, TIDEL Park and Mr. T K Ramachandran, Principal Secretary, Information Technology Department.

The Chief Minister welcomed the delegation and spoke of the many policy initiatives being taken to make the state an attractive investment destination. He also added that the state was establishing a state of the art Aerospace Park at Sriperumbudur with all facilities suited for plug and play operations. Mr. Atulya Misra, Principal Secretary Industries Department, said that the state has good facilities for the food processing, heavy engineering and construction equipment sectors as well.

Mr. R. Ramkumar, Chairman – Tamil Nadu Chapter, AMCHAM responded that the presence of several American companies in the state is testimony to the favourable business environment and that American companies have created lakhs of new job opportunities both direct and indirect. He also mentioned that American companies will partner with the state in the forthcoming Global Investor Meet.