AP pitches for more investments

Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday pitched for more investments as the CII’s 23rd Partnership Summit got underway in the coastal city on Saturday. This is third time in a row that the summit is being held here.

Several companies including diversified Adani Group, signed 77 MoUs with the Andhra Pradesh government on the first day of the three-day investment conclave, entailing total investments of around Rs 31,500 crore. The new agreements are expected to generate 98,200 jobs.

Inaugurating the conclave, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said that Andhra Pradesh had huge potential for investments in several sectors including agriculture.

“AP is endowed with vast mineral resources, long coastline, talented human resources and most importantly uninterrupted power supply. Opportunities are aplenty for investors in different sectors, including pharmaceuticals, textiles, food processing, automobiles and electronics among others,” Naidu said.

Pointing out about upcoming two industrial corridors of Vizag-Chennai and Chennai-Bengaluru in the state, he said AP was fast becoming a hub for automobile and pharma sectors. “AP is also turning into a solar powerhouse with 1,000 MW solar installed and 1,000 MW more coming up,” he said.
Naidu said India was poised to be a $10-trillion economy by 2030. “To achieve this, country may have to adopt several unorthodox measures. For instance, with around 120 million people set to join the Indian workforce, skilling them in a short span of time is essential,” he explained.

In his address, Union Minister of Commerce Suresh Prabhu said despite very serious challenges the residual Andhra Pradesh faced after the new state was created, it marched towards the path of progress. “AP is now one of the fastest growing states and it has been witnessing progress in all sectors. Efforts would be made to transform AP into a design hub. The day is not far off when India drives the cars made in Andhra Pradesh as it is emerging as an automotive hub,” he said.

Pitching for more investments into his State, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said he would always be ready to help the industrialists who would come forward to invest in AP. He said industry-friendly atmosphere was promoted to attract more investments.

In the past three years, AP has signed 946 MoUs involving total investments of Rs 13.54 lakh crore and with a potential to generat 31 lakh jobs. “Of this, 531 projects with Rs 1.5 lakh crore investments have been completed and many more projects are at various stages of implementation,” he said.

The Chief Minister said AP emerged as number one in ease of doing business for the past two years. The state government has been using technology to bring transparency in administration and the real time governance developed for effective administration, he added.

Speaking on the occasion Ramesh Abhisekh, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said that there was rapid improvement in economic profile of India. He appreciated the pro-active approach of AP in development of infrastructure to promote industries.

Over 2,500 delegates including 250 foreign delegates from 60 countries are participating in the summit.