An Investors Meet organised recently by the State government in Chennai saw the launch, laying of the foundation, and signing of MoUs for several projects across the State. Coimbatore district is all set to attract investments in IT and ITES, engineering, and textile sectors from companies that took part in the meet.
Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) president V. Thirugnanam said of the companies that signed MoU with the State government or facilities which the Chief Minister inaugurated for Coimbatore district, at least four were related to IT and ITES sectors, and two were related to engineering, and one was for the manufacture of drones. Adding capacities in the IT and ITES sectors would bring job opportunities for the youth graduating from colleges here. Investments in the engineering sector would bring work to the micro and small-scale units that did job work for larger industries. Another potential area for growth in Coimbatore was the electronics sector. The manufacture of drones would tap the potential in Coimbatore in the electrical and electronic fields.
One of the major advantages of Coimbatore was the availability of skilled manpower because of the large number of engineering colleges in the district. These projects would generate jobs and also leverage the availability of skilled manpower here, he said.
However, this might result in worker shortages too for some of the existing MSMEs. Some of the sectors were seeing a revival of demand and some others continued to face challenges. Most of the MSMEs in the engineering sector were operating at about 70 per cent capacity utilisation and continued to face the issue of fluctuating raw material prices. If the situation improved, there would be a shortage of manpower, he said.
One of the options that the MSMEs should focus on and the Association was also exploring was promoting low-cost automation, he said. This would help tide over the shortage in availability of workers, he added.
