A number of businessmen who made their fortunes elsewhere are investing in massive projects in the state.
Billionaires like Pillai and Yusuffali are important not because of the quantum of investment they have made but by the endorsement that they have given to the state in the international business circle.
Take a look at four prominent billionaires from the group.
Yusuffali was only 16 years old in 1973 when he embarked on a 14-day voyage to join his family members who were running a small trading establishment in the Abu Dhabi souk.
Yusuffali went on to become a regular supplier of frozen foods and other items to expatriates from Western countries. Soon he forayed into the wholesale distribution of frozen foods in poultry and meat.
The turning point came when he opened the first retail outlet in Abu Dhabi.
The Kuwait-Iraq war was under way when Yusuffali decided to take the risk of investing more money in the business.
His venture not only turned out to be successful but also won him the support of the rulers as he was one of the very few who stayed back and made investments, while others were leaving.
The big expansion came in 2000, when he opened the first hypermarket in Dubai. Soon, the LuLu brand spread all over the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Today, Yusuffali is the managing director of the $4.75-billion Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group.
Politicians from his home state describe him as the 'unofficial ambassador' of Kerala in the Gulf region.
His role in settling disputes between Kerala and Dubai over the SmartCity project — an IT special economic zone being set up in Kochi in a joint venture between the Kerala government and a subsidiary of Dubai Holdings — or his role as facilitator of investment or as the provider of jobs to nearly 24,000 Malayalees have all contributed to this title.
In Kerala, the LuLu group's first investment was a convention centre in Thrissur at a cost of Rs 145 crore. The LuLu Shopping Mall and Marriott Hotel in Kochi have been built at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore.
The two other projects of the LuLu group in the state are a flight catering service at a cost of Rs 65 crore and the Airport Marriott Hotel in Kochi at a cost of Rs 150 crore.
In other words the group has so far invested Rs 1,960 crore in projects in Kerala.
Apart from this, the LuLu group is one of the leading investors in the equity of a local bank and Cochin International Airport Ltd.
Pillai, head of a $3-billion business empire, comes from a farming family, but he of course had other plans. Right from his younger days he was on the lookout for opportunity and he found it in the construction sector.
After completing a few projects in Kochi, Kerala's only industrial area, he decided to chase his dreams in West Asia. In 1978 he reached Saudi Arabia and soon started his own company with a local partner.
The construction company he floated, Nasser S al-Hajri Corporation, initially had 150 people working for it. Today, the company employs 70,000 people and has a presence in West Asia, Australia, Africa and the United States.
The RP group has made investments in the state's tourism, health and trading sectors.
'We have so far invested Rs 1,500 crore in Kerala,' says Pillai. His group started investing aggressively in Kerala in the past few years, buying hotels and resorts in Kovalam and Kozhikode and promoting another one in Kollam.
The group entered organised retailing in Kerala with the RP Mall in Kozhikode. Its forayed into health and education by setting up the Upasana hospital and Nursing College in Kollam.
The founder of the Mfar group, is a diploma holder in civil engineering, who started his career in the Northeastern states. But he soon migrated to Dubai and, after a short while, to Oman.
He found a local partner and launched the Gulfar group, which forayed into the construction of key infrastructure projects like highways, hotels, bridges and the oil sector. Later the group expanded to Qatar and became a major player in the construction sector there, too.
In 1997, Ali founded Mfar Holdings to begin a real estate business. His other local businesses include construction, hospitality and manufacturing.
Mfar is one of the very few groups to set up a manufacturing unit in the state. The company has spent Rs 50 crore to set up an activated carbon unit. 'The unit exports nearly Rs 150 crore worth of activated carbon every year,' says MM Abdul Basheer, director of Mfar Hotels and Resorts Ltd.
It has also set up MIV Logistics, a container freight station in Kochi.
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