'Chinese companies express strong investment interests in India'

M Velmurugan, executive vice chairman of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance & Export Promotion Bureau, who is in Singapore to promote Global Investors Meet 2019 (GIM), which is to be held on January 23-24 in Tamil Nadu said that India has abundant skilled labour and wage cost is lower.

"China and India are two of the fastest growing markets in the world and offer excellent investment opportunities. But China's wage cost is going up," said Velmurugan.

There is a growing interest among the Chinese companies to invest in India especially under the 'Make in India' initiatives, said Velmurugan, who earlier this week visited China and learnt that Chinese wages are three times higher than those paid in India.

"India competes with China very closely but the potential for (business) cooperation between two countries is very high," he pointed out.

There are about 12 to 15 Chinese companies operating in Tamil Nadu now but the number is expected to increase, given their strong interests seen during the Tamil Nadu delegation visit promoting the GIM 2019 in China, he said.