Projects pertaining to “decarbonised economy or green energy” were in focus at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting held in Davos recently, and the Andhra Pradesh government had signed MoUs worth ₹1.25 lakh crore on the occasion, Gudivada Amarnath, Minister for Industries and Commerce, Infrastructure, Investments, and Information Technology, said on Tuesday.
Mr. Amarnath, who was part of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s delegation, was addressing the media here after returning from Davos.
The Minister said that MoUs had been signed with Greenko, Adani and Aurobindo groups. About 20 locations had been identified in the State where solar or wind or hydro power projects could be set up, the combined capacity of which was 30,000 MW, he said.
‘Vizag a Unicorn Hub’
“Visakhapatnam is projected as a Unicorn Hub for IT startups. We had interacted with many startups and MNCs such as IBM. The Chief Minister had even chaired a breakfast meeting with startups, and the response was positive. We have invited quite a few IT companies to visit Visakhapatnam,” the Minister said.
CEO of Tech Mahindra C.P. Gurnani evinced interest in scaling up the facility in Visakhapatnam and opening a Centre of Excellence on Artificial Intelligence, he said.
A good number of industry captains had visited the A.P. Pavilion and discussed with us the opportunities in the State. We had discussions with firms such as Boston Consulting Group, Dassault Systemes and Hero Motocorp, he said.
The Chief Minster had a detailed discussion with the CEO of ArcelorMittal Aditya Mittal, who spoke about scaling up the existing plant in Visakhapatnam by investing ₹1,000 crore, the Minister added.
We also dealt with port-based businesses, as the State had 970-km coastline, which was the second largest after Gujarat, he said.
“We are developing nine fishing harbours by investing ₹2,000 crore. Work has begun on four of them. We are also establishing four new ports,” he said.
Referring to a question on the gains made by Telangana at Davos, he said, “We have gone to Davos to project our State and we are not worried about others. Unlike Telangana, which appeared to have focused only on Hyderabad, we have projected the entire State, depending on the strength, resources and opportunities available in each area.”
