TRB Rajaa, Minister for Industries, Investment Promotions and Commerce, Government of Tamil Nadu
| Photo Credit:
SRINATH M
As Southern states vie for manufacturing projects, the State investment wars are on in full swing.
Amid reports that South Korean shoemaker Hwaseung is set to invest in Andhra Pradesh just three months after holding talks with Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu industries minister TRB Rajaa has said that the state will “at no point join a race to the bottom” when it comes to attracting global investments with incentives.
“Investment promotion is not a regular everyday game. It’s about balancing the states’ need for certain sectors, the jobs that will get created, incentives being given according to the area in which the investment is anchored,” he said in a post on X.
businessline has learnt that the near-free price of the land (99 paise per acre) on a 50-year lease and the high utility incentives offered by AP were the drivers for the company to head to AP after signing a MoU with TN for the project. In August, Hwaseung announced plans to invest ₹1,720 crore in TN.
State government sources said that while incentives led to the shift to AP, if something similar is done to one company in TN, it also be made available for other investors. The State has a large number of them, making the policy ultimately unsustainable.
“We had a call with the investors also recently where they explained their position and asked if we can match it, but we said no,” a TN government source in the know said. We will rather use such incentives to go for high value jobs, they added.
While areas of Thanjavur or Thoothukudi were among the ones set to host the project in Tamil Nadu, the land cost in the State works out to around ₹30 lakh per acre compared to land being nearly free in AP, the sources added.
TN industries minister Rajaa added in his post that, “While some governments have the luxury of huge tracts of arid lands others have high value land that can’t be casually given away without gauging the outcome of the incentives vis a vis value of jobs being created,” he added.
The industries minister’s social media post followed a statement by BJP leader K Annamalai on Saturday morning pointing out Hwaseung’s decision.
“At a time when other states are moving swiftly to attract global manufacturing, Tamil Nadu is losing ground due to complacency and administrative apathy. From being a land of opportunities, DMK has transformed TN into a land of missed opportunities,” Annamalai said.
When asked about competition from other States for investments, CM Naidu said that the government believes in cooperative federalism. “Let other States feel the heat and compete with policies,” he said.
Sources add that no MoU is signed yet between Hwaseung and AP government.
(With inputs from G Naga Sridhar, Visakhapatnam)
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Published on November 15, 2025