Sri City launches ready built factories (RBF) to woo Japanese SMEs

Chennai:

In a bid to attract Japanese small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Sri City, south India’s integrated business city, launched Ready Built Factories that will cater to the need of SMEs.

The RBF are launched at the Japanese Enclave, which came into being in the Sri City in 2010. Currently, the enclave has 14 Japanese customers with three companies of Kobelco group (part of Kobe Steel) and others like Metal One, NHK Springs, Unicharm, Piolax, Aisan, Kusakabe, said Ravindra Sannareddy, managing director of Sri City during a press coneference.

Currently, the integrated business city consists of special economic zone, domestic tariff zone and free trade warehousing zone.

“Over 150 acres in the 300 acre Japanese enclave has been allocated to the existing Japanese customers and we plan to increase the size of the enclave to 500 acres to meet the increasing demand,” he added.

Sannareddy also said that his company plans to build residential and social infrastructure for Japanese in the ethnic enclave and has dedicated 30 acres of land for such facility.

Interestingly, Chennai Metro rail rakes will also be built in Sri City. The first rake is expected to be delivered in april, said Sannareddy.

Shinya Fuji, director general, JETRO, said that there are 315 Japanese companies in Tamil nadu and most of them from automotve sector.

He said Japanese OEMs are looking to use Chennai as a major exporting hub for their parts and products.

Fuji also highlighted various challenges faced by Japanese SMEs in Tamil Nadu. These include issues like insufficient information and guidance from the local authorities, delay in obtaining statutory clearances from multiple agencies and unstable power supply.

He said Tamil Nadu accounts for 35 per cent of India’s ancillary production and is also the largest exporter state for automobile and spare parts in the country.