Date:13/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/04/13/stories/2005041300871700.htm

Back CSEZ exports touch Rs 638 cr in 2004-05

Our Bureau

Kochi , April 12

FOR the first time since its inception 21 years ago, exports from the Cochin Special Economic Zone crossed the Rs 500-crore mark and touched Rs 638 crore during the financial year 2004-05. The exports in the previous fiscal was to the tune of Rs 404 crore.

The employment generated has increased from 6,000 to 7,500 making the zone the single largest employment destination in the State.

The electronic hardware sector continues to be the dominant sector, accounting for 46 per cent in the total exports of the zone, a press release issued here said.

Sun Fibre Optics and Crysind Electronics of the Nest Group have won awards at the global level from the GE Group for their excellent supply record.

The engineering sector also recorded a 42 per cent growth to touch Rs 37-crore export turnover. The zone now exports buses to the West Asian market.

Tyco Electronics, the showpiece of the zone, is doubling capacity by undertaking a Rs 25 crore-expansion project.

Leela Lace powered a 38 per cent growth in the readymade garment sector, while Tata Ceramics anchored a 37 per cent growth in the ceramic sector exports.

The gem and jewellery sector got new depth with the addition of a diamond-processing unit to the existing array of gold jewellery exporting units in the zone.

A global cigarette major has made Kochi its distribution hub for South Asia. This would hopefully be a forerunner of developments to come once the Vallarpadam project and the shipping hub get going, the release said.

The CSEZ has the best infrastructure in the country today. The Government had invested Rs 93 crore on infrastructure on its 103-acre zone. Of this, Rs 51 crore was in the last five years, which makes the investment infrastructure almost Rs 1 crore per acre. The CSEZ now has a 20-lakh-litre-per-day water supply system, a 10-lakh-litre-per-day common effluent treatment system and a modern 25 mVa sub station.

An Irish venture in linen manufacturing, a major tea blending export enterprise, a modern dye house for the natural fibre sector are some of the major projects that are fast coming up in the zone.

In the IT sector, IT park — Technopolis, being developed by the Muthoot Pappachan Group — will be ready by July.

The CSEZ now has to turn away applicants for lack of space. Some of the investors are directed to industrial parks run by other agencies in the State, the release added.