Rs 22,000 Cr Investments Made Since June 2019: AP Govt

AMARAVATI: On the eve of a high-level delegation's visit to Saudi Arabia to seek capital for various sectors in the state, the Andhra Pradesh government on Sunday said Rs 22,000 crore worth investments have been made from June 2019 while another Rs 30,000 crore was in the pipeline.

Led by Zulfi Ravdjee, the state government's special representative for middle-east and far-east countries, the delegation would tour Saudi Arabia from February 24 to 27 to "attract FDIs in sectors like agriculture, food processing, pharmaceuticals, oil and petrochemicals and information technology."

"We will be following up on all investments that were negotiated during the previous Chandrababu Naidu regime. Many (of them) materialized but we have to take them to the logical end," a top official said. Though oil giant Saudi Aramco was supposed to be a largest investor, particularly in the PCPIR in Visakhapatnam, it went away to Maharashtra.

Now that the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government is seeking to revive the PCPIR project, fresh investment opportunities are being explored from Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Industry Special Chief Secretary Rajat Bhargava said in a statement that 39 large and mega units started their operations in the state since June 2019 with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore and providing employment to 33,000 people.

He said eight large and mega units at an outlay of Rs 7,916 crore and employment potential of 4,086 were under trail production stage while eight more units with an investment of Rs 8,663 crore and employment potential of 14,205 were in the machinery erection stage.

In addition, 6,572 MSME units were established with an investment of Rs 1,840 crore providing employment to 49,001 persons.

"We are following a focused approach to attract industries into the state. We have a robust development agenda focusing on natural competitive advantages the state holds and beyond.We are striving to continue to be the best state in ease of doing business, we also plan to reduce the cost of doing business by simplifying regulations and processes so as to create a business-friendly environment in the state.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh under the leadership of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy garu

The state is seeing a sustained interest from global and domestic investors and we are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to attract these investors into the state. The govt. has organised Diplomatic Outreach Program involving Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Consul Generals from 34 countries, who have actively participated in the deliberations on Investment opportunities in AP in August 2019. The Chief Minister explained about the Investment opportunities in AP. The government has hosted high level foreign delegations from Australia, South Korea and China to explore investment opportunities in different sectors. Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy has led the AP delegation to Autoexpo and Defence expo from which we have received investment interest of around INR 15,000 crores.

The investment inflow has been robust; the Government has been monitoring the Investment proposals very closely for their speedy grounding. After the new government has taken charge (June 2019-Feb 2020), 39 Large and Mega units have started their operation with an investment of INR 20,000 Crore providing employment to 33,000 people. In addition to this, 6572 MSME units were established with an investment of INR 1840 Crore providing employment to 49,001 people.

Further, more than 1736 companies have been allotted land by APIIC with a committed investment of INR 13,000 Crore and many more companies are in negotiations with the government, this is an example of unwavering investors’ faith in Andhra Pradesh’s growth story.

Through single desk portal since May 2019, we have processed approvals for 2589 units amounting to an investment size of INR 38,922 crores and employment of 1,13,900. There are 20 projects under the active consideration of SIPB with total investment of INR 10,944 cr and employment of 43,300. Few of the marquee names in the list are ATC Tyres, PSA Walsin, Greentech Industries, Wingtech, and Grasim Industries.

It may be noted here that an investment of INR 22,000 crore has been grounded in 9 months and another INR 30,000 Crore investment is in pipeline from Aditya Birla Group, CRRC, JSW, Panasonic etc., which itself shows the Commitment of the Government in attracting investments flows into the State.

On the other hand, the government is focusing on skill development to the youth of the state so as to provide high quality human resources for the enterprises looking to do business in the state. The Chief Minister has accorded top priority for skill development and hence we have created a separate skills department, we are in the process of setting up of a Skill Development University in Tirupati, a high-end Skills University in Visakhapatnam, and skill centres in each of parliamentary constituencies. An MSME training center with an investment of INR 200 cr is coming at nowlur, Mangalagiri mandal as well.

We are working closely with industry stakeholders and taken their feedback to revamp our industrial policy. Political stability, access to south east Asian markets, road and rail connectivity and large land bank, water availability are the top reasons investors cite for choosing AP as their investment destination. The government is committed to building a conducive ecosystem by creating the best infrastructure in the country to attract industries. The State government is working on a new industrial policy with focus on faster clearances and transparency and accountability in land allotments. We are expecting to rollout the new policy by March 2020,the Special Chief Secretary added.

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