We will showcase the strength of Andhra Pradesh and how the State can be a good destination for investment in the upcoming meet of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, Minister for Industries and IT Gudivada Amarnath has said.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Mr. Amarnath said he was part of the delegation being led by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for the meeting scheduled to be held from May 22 to 26.
“We will be setting up the A.P. Pavilion at the meeting. Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy will be meeting a host leaders and industry captains as part of the efforts to promote A.P. as an investment destination,” he said.
“We have lined up about 40 meetings, 14 of them bilateral. The Chief Minister will also be meeting the WEF founder Klaus Schwab,” said Mr. Amarnath.
Speaking about the State’s strengths, he said, “We will showcase our natural resources, including the 974-km-long coastline, which is the second largest coastline in India after Gujarat. We are already leading in marine exports in the country with 46% share and 68% in shrimp.”
Taking a dig at the opposition parties, he said, “The Chief Minister does not believe in building castles in the air. We will project our achievement only when the projects are grounded.”
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Amarnath said the State government would be pitching for about 10 platforms out of the 18 earmarked for the meeting and they included areas such as IT, logistics, Artificial Intelligence, health and education.
Three new ports
Talking about port-centric development, he said there were four major ports along the coastline, which included the one in Visakhapatnam, and three more were in the offing at Ramayapatnam, Bhavanapadu and Machilipatnam. This apart, we would be investing ₹100 crore on expansion of the anchorage port in Kakinada, he said.
“The stage is being set for massive investment in sectors such as automobile, electronic manufacturing cluster and industrial corridors,” he said.
“We have already acquired 6,500 acres for a petroleum complex at Rambilli in Anakapalli district and 7,000 acres on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad corridor that passes through A.P.,” he said.
Talking about investments the State had attracted after YSRCP came to power in 2019, Mr. Amarnath said about ₹7,500 crore had been invested in the MSME sector and ₹36,000 crore in mega and large industries, including PSUs. “This has generated employment to the tune of about 1.76 lakh,” the Minister said.
On power shortage, he said it was a country-wide phenomenon and a temporary setback.
He said the Industries Department was now focussing on fire safety audit in every industry once in every three months.
