Chennai, Jan 18 (IANS): An international expo on security systems would be held in Tamil Nadu this April, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday.

Inaugurating the Defence Industry Development Meet here, she said the expo will be held April 11-14 and representatives from around 80 countries are expected to participate in the biennial meet.

The Defence Industry Development Meet is an initiative to bring manufacturers of defence systems, policy makers and officials of armed forces to enhance domestic product of defence equipment.

Citing the military tank and the ordinance factories in the stale and also the L&T's shipyard near here making ships for Indian Coast Guard, Sitharaman said Tamil Nadu has a defence production ecosystem that needs to be leveraged with the defence equipment production units located in Bengaluru.

Referring to the presence of several automobile manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu, Defence Production Secretary Ajay Kumar said that the next logical step for the state is to be a strong defence manufacturing sector.

He said India was the world's largest importer of defence equipment between 2010-2014 and the government's effort is to make the country an exporter of defence products which would be possible with the active participation of private industry.

The government is streamlining the policy to encourage industry to export, he added.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines, Sitharaman said the Defence Acquisition Council on January 16, 2018 cleared a simplified procedure for procuring defence equipment and this would enable increased participation of domestic industry enabling import substitution.