Andhra rolls out red carpet to investors

Mumbai: Andhra Pradesh, which has been topping the ease of doing business index for the last four consecutive years, has assured prospective investors the fastest single-window clearances, usable coastlines, multiple seaports, quality power supply, abundant land bank, and modern infrastructure.

Addressing an investor roadshow on Monday ahead of the global investor summit slated for March 3-4 in Visakhapatnam, state industries & commerce minister Gudivada Amarnath rolled out the red carpet to India Inc if they are ready to invest in his state.

The state is home to a diversified portfolio of industries such as automobiles, chemicals, aerospace, defence, pharma, textiles etc), and world-class infrastructure in seaports roads, startups and tourism.

On top of it, he said the state, which has the second largest coastline of over 974 km has two major ports and over 40 minor ports, and also boasts of the highest per capita income of USD 3,800 in the country in FY22.

As many as 89 large projects are under active implementation with a total investment of Rs 2.2 lakh crore, with the potential to create 20,000 jobs, he added.

When it comes to project clearance, he said Andhra has been the champion state in ease of doing business for the past consecutive four years.

The state has over 48,000 acres of industrial land banks and is home to 530 industrial estates, 293 industrial parks, 31 MSME parks, six special economic zones, three information technology SEZs, and three of the 11 industrial corridors. All this makes Andhra a competitive investment destination on the East Coast, he said.

State finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said the state is taking big strides as evident from its economic growth at 11.43 per cent GSDP growth in FY22, the state had the highest growth rate all major states. In the past three years, its exports have increased growing 9.3 per cent annually.

Over the past few years, our government has undertaken several reform initiatives to strengthen governance, business environment, policy stability, competitiveness, enhance transparency, to boost the investment climate, said Rajendranath.

Urban development minister Audimulapu Suresh said Visakhapatnam, which is the biggest urban agglomeration of the state with 20 million residents or 5.8 million households.

This vibrant coastal city is a hub for industrial, educational, and tourist activities attracting investments from public and private companies that include oil refinery, zinc, fertilizers, steel, dredging, heavy engineering, ship-building and power generation, he said.

None of the ministers offered any investment targets from the forthcoming summit, though.

Various states have been holding global investor summits and claiming to have sewed up investments worth billions of dollars. At the recently held one such summit in Lucknow, the UP administration has claimed to inked investment MoUs worth over Rs 33.5 lakh crore, while Karnataka’s held in November had claimed close to Rs 10 lakh crore of investment commitments.

Maharashtra and Gujarat, which lead in industrialisation and foreign direct investments, have not held their summits since the pandemic. Many analysts say vast majority of such MoUs die naturally as the average conversion of such commitments into actual investments are only in high single-digit across the states.