OthersAndhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the focus of his government is now on attracting investments into manufacturing. Ahead of the CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, Naidu told ET’s CR Sukumar that the state has already received investment interest worth over Rs 5 lakh crore. Edited excerpts:
How do you compare Chandrababu Naidu 2.0 with your earlier stint in terms of attracting investments?
I was an active participant in India’s key economic reforms, including the third industrial revolution, and now the fourth industrial revolution. I had attracted large investments into information technology and built infrastructure in Hyderabad, including India’s first greenfield airport, apart from attracting the country’s first private sector investments in power generation. I also played a key role in landmark reforms in the roads and telecommunications sectors in the country. In my current tenure as chief minister, I am more aggressive, assertive and progressive in my vision on real-time governance and in reaching out to the common man, thanks to matured technology that enables me to monitor progress in all sectors.
How is attracting investments different now?
I had focused on information technology in the combined state and the focus this time round in Andhra Pradesh is on attracting large-scale investments into manufacturing sector. The investments being brought in this time are much larger compared with my earlier stints, and also the highest ever in multiple sectors. In all, we had signed 1,946 investment agreements worth ?13.54 lakh crore covering 18 sectors. In the automobile sector alone, we could attract over ?30,000 crore of investments. Some of the investors include Kia Motors, Hero Motors and Isuzu and ecosystem players like Bharat Forge, Apollo Tyres and Ceat Tyres. Electronics hardware is another key sector that we are focussing on. Reliance group’s Mukesh Ambani is going to set up a large manufacturing facility at Tirupati to make 1million Jio mobile handsets a year. He will set up a 130 MW solar plant. He, along with British Petroleum, will make large investments in KG basin’s D6 block. Ambani is also interested in setting up a large startup incubation facility and a venture capital fund. He has shown interest in investing in the agro processing sector, which we are promoting aggressively. The investment details will be announced at the ensuing Partnership Summit through MoUs. We are also attracting large-scale investments into aerospace and defence. I am drawing my inspiration from resource-constrained developed nations like Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Dubai in attracting global investments. Compared with them, Andhra Pradesh has more resources to leverage on.
There has been hype around investment summits, in general, and those organised by you, in particular. How many of your investment agreements could really get converted into reality in terms of production and employment?
I can proudly say that my success rate is more than 50%, which is considered the highest for any state in India through partnership summits.
What are your investment expectations from this partnership summit?
It is a continuous brand promotion exercise and we have received interest for over ?5 lakh crore of investments so far for this summit. I had organised four such partnership summits in the combined Andhra Pradesh and three consecutively this time round. I have a record here again, organising seven out of 25 partnership summits in the country, with one-third share, the highest for any chief minister. I also hold the record of highest success rate of converting MoUs into actual investments in the country.
Do you think incentives associated with special category status to Andhra would have helped attract more investments?
Naturally. Even with lots of constraints post bifurcation of the state, we managed to attract many investors. Tax incentives could have helped us attract investments without struggling so much.
How do you compare Chandrababu Naidu 2.0 with your earlier stint in terms of attracting investments?
I was an active participant in India’s key economic reforms, including the third industrial revolution, and now the fourth industrial revolution. I had attracted large investments into information technology and built infrastructure in Hyderabad, including India’s first greenfield airport, apart from attracting the country’s first private sector investments in power generation. I also played a key role in landmark reforms in the roads and telecommunications sectors in the country. In my current tenure as chief minister, I am more aggressive, assertive and progressive in my vision on real-time governance and in reaching out to the common man, thanks to matured technology that enables me to monitor progress in all sectors.
How is attracting investments different now?
I had focused on information technology in the combined state and the focus this time round in Andhra Pradesh is on attracting large-scale investments into manufacturing sector. The investments being brought in this time are much larger compared with my earlier stints, and also the highest ever in multiple sectors. In all, we had signed 1,946 investment agreements worth ?13.54 lakh crore covering 18 sectors. In the automobile sector alone, we could attract over ?30,000 crore of investments. Some of the investors include Kia Motors, Hero Motors and Isuzu and ecosystem players like Bharat Forge, Apollo Tyres and Ceat Tyres. Electronics hardware is another key sector that we are focussing on. Reliance group’s Mukesh Ambani is going to set up a large manufacturing facility at Tirupati to make 1million Jio mobile handsets a year. He will set up a 130 MW solar plant. He, along with British Petroleum, will make large investments in KG basin’s D6 block. Ambani is also interested in setting up a large startup incubation facility and a venture capital fund. He has shown interest in investing in the agro processing sector, which we are promoting aggressively. The investment details will be announced at the ensuing Partnership Summit through MoUs. We are also attracting large-scale investments into aerospace and defence. I am drawing my inspiration from resource-constrained developed nations like Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Dubai in attracting global investments. Compared with them, Andhra Pradesh has more resources to leverage on.
There has been hype around investment summits, in general, and those organised by you, in particular. How many of your investment agreements could really get converted into reality in terms of production and employment?
I can proudly say that my success rate is more than 50%, which is considered the highest for any state in India through partnership summits.
What are your investment expectations from this partnership summit?
It is a continuous brand promotion exercise and we have received interest for over ?5 lakh crore of investments so far for this summit. I had organised four such partnership summits in the combined Andhra Pradesh and three consecutively this time round. I have a record here again, organising seven out of 25 partnership summits in the country, with one-third share, the highest for any chief minister. I also hold the record of highest success rate of converting MoUs into actual investments in the country.
Do you think incentives associated with special category status to Andhra would have helped attract more investments?
Naturally. Even with lots of constraints post bifurcation of the state, we managed to attract many investors. Tax incentives could have helped us attract investments without struggling so much.
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