Chennai:Chief Minister M K Stalin left on an 18-day official tour of the United States of America to meet potential investors and head honchos of a slew of Fortune 500 companies in San Francisco and Chicago cities with a view to enriching the industrial scene in the State through fresh investments and generating more employment for the benefit of future generations of Tamils.
Speaking to the media at the airport, where he was seen off by his ministerial colleagues, MPs, MLAs, party leaders, functionaries and cadre who had come in large numbers, Stalin said that he had received information that there was a heavy rush of investors evincing interest in meeting him in the US with a view to starting new ventures in the State.
So, he was not sure if he would be able stick to the schedule and return home on September 14, he said. However, on his return he would give details of whom he met and who all had agreed to make investments, he said. Earlier in the day, he visited the memorials of former Chief Ministers C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi and also met several dignitaries, including TVS group chairman Venu Srinivasan and his wife, TAFE chairperson, Mallika Srinivasan, who had called on him during the day to greet
him.
The Tamil Chamber of Commerce (TCC) president Chozhan Nachiar Rajasekar wished the Chief Minister all success in attracting investments, which would enhance the economic trade and industrial growth of the State, leading to enhanced employment opportunities, inclusive growth and social justice. Before boarding the 10 pm Emirates flight to Dubai, from where he would leave for San Francisco to address an investors' meet on August 29, Stalin, in his epistle to party cadre, said his trip was part of the government’s initiative to turn Tamil Nadu into a ‘US $ One Trillion’ economy, which could be achieved only by pursuing investors in the present day competitive global economic scenario.
Besides inviting investors to come to Tamil Nadu, Stalin said he would also meet the Tamil communities in the US, particularly the Tamil people in Chicago on September 7, which would be a reminiscence of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s address at the Chicago University in 1971. The same way in which Tamils living in Chicago and the neighboring States had then listened to the address delivered at the political hall of the university then, the Tamil community would congregate to meet Stalin 43 years later, he said.