Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday urged the Indian industry to build globally competitive Indian multinational companies.

In her address to the national council meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry in Chennai on Friday, Jayalalithaa also extended a personal invitation to ten business houses assembled in the meeting to select the state for launching their global plans.

To help the business houses, there would be special economic zones in Chennai, Ennore, Thoothukkudi and Hosur, she said.

The SEZs would be designed to ensure global competitiveness in all aspects, she said, adding her government would set out a new framework for mobility of labour and their employment terms in the SEZs.

While expressing her unhappiness over the 5 per cent economic growth, she announced a growth target of 10 per cent for the state and sought the industry's help to achieve it.

As the auto component exports from Chennai exceeded $260 million, she enquired why a few companies could not set their sights high to become serious global sourcing companies.

"A target of $1 billion of exports in 2 years should be the goal. This fits in with our economic strategy to achieve 10 per cent growth in Tamil Nadu's manufacturing sector," she said.

Jayalalithaa said considering the ambivalence pervading in the Indian industry, she was convinced that all had to be more aggressive to move rapidly forward.

"I have watched the growth plans of the Indian business houses with some concern. I would like to raise the question as to whether you, the captains of industry, have the fire in the belly to stride forward, meeting the challenges ahead," she asked.

"It cannot be business as usual and what is needed is out of the box thinking. I am tired of the gloomy forecasts for the Indian industry and manufacturing in particular. As you are aware, I myself will never run away from a battle and no matter how great the challenge, I am willing to take the risks," Jayalalithaa pointed out.

Quoting management guru C K Prahlad, she said her government also would prefer an export led growth strategy.

"While exports do not yield revenues for the state, we are backing this strategy as the dominant theme has to be scale and volume, accompanied by nimbleness in information assimilation and decision making. An Indian company has to build a world class business driven by quality and cost reduction to capture external markets and the domestic space adopting this strategy," she remarked.

According to her, the segments that could have a dominant role globally are automobiles, textiles, leather, pump industry, herbal and medicinal plant based industry, floriculture and biotechnology based industries.

Jayalalithaa said her government is committed to the second-generation reforms. She said the reforms, consisting of deregulation, building world-class infrastructure, supply of quality energy, state level labour and tax reforms were on track and the government was making 'rapid headway.'

She admitted that in the wake of the global downturn, there had been considerable churning and reassessment of how businesses should restructure and face the new challenges.

Even the governments in developed countries like France and Germany have had to review their approach to the age-old beliefs on pension, job security, et cetera.

"Competitiveness is the key driver and it is perilous to ignore its diktat. I, for one, don't believe in a phlegmatic, lukewarm and laid-back attitude. It is a competitive world and the laggards will have to rue their complacency," said the chief minister.

While not fully subscribing to the theory of a minimalist government as suggested by Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy, Jayalalithaa said she believed that the state should place its focus on the basics, namely, the maintenance of law and order, sound regulatory practices and functioning infrastructure.