Vijayawada: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday laid out a bold vision for the state’s future, emphasising a transition from the ‘ease of doing business’ to the ‘speed of doing business’.

Addressing the industry body FICCI’s National Executive Committee here, the Chief Minister invited industrialists to invest in the state, terming the next 10 years as inspiring times that they cannot afford to miss.

“One thing I am asking you - invest in Andhra Pradesh, see the governance. Earlier, I used to talk about the ease of doing business; now, I am talking about the speed of doing business,” the Chief Minister said.

He reiterated that economic reform and poverty eradication must go hand in hand. Citing the liberalisation spearheaded by late prime minister PV Narasimha Rao as a turning point in India’s economic history, he acknowledged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in providing the kind of stable governance that has made India the world’s fastest-growing economy.

Furthermore, he highlighted AP’s infrastructural prowess and said that the state was in the process of building three greenfield ports and seven greenfield airports.

“Our new capital, Amaravati, is being developed as a greenfield city, where people can enjoy good health and high life expectancy,” the Chief Minister said. According to him, the state aims to become a $2.4 trillion economy by 2047, with an annual growth rate of 15 per cent this fiscal. Naidu reminded that the state achieved a growth rate of 13.5 per cent between 2014 and 2019, but this dropped to 10.3 per cent between 2019 and 2024 under the previous YSRCP government. According to him, this slowdown resulted in a loss of Rs 7 lakh crore in gross state domestic product (GSDP). Calling green energy the future, Naidu urged FICCI members to adopt it. He said he has had a clear vision on energy from the beginning and recalled that he had started implementing solar, wind, and green energy projects in 2014, which have now matured. Naidu said petrol and diesel vehicles are bound to become obsolete. Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, president of FICCI and MD of Emami Limited, praised Naidu's leadership in transforming Andhra Pradesh from a largely agrarian state into a beacon of digital governance. He highlighted the balance between tradition and modernity, with Andhra Pradesh remaining the rice bowl of India whilst pioneering quantum computing through India’s first Quantum Valley Tech Park in Amaravati.