Musk, Cook, Nadella, Pichai, Bezos among tech czars on AP invitee list for investor summit

The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government is inviting the “world” to do business with Andhra Pradesh, claiming that it has many advantages besides having abundant natural and human resources.

Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Anand Mahindra, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Adi Godrej, Rishad Premji and N Chandrasekaran are among the Indian industry giants being invited.

The state government has also planned to conduct roadshows in Germany between 20 and 26 January, in Japan from 25 to 27 January, in South Korea on 30 and 31 January, and in the US from 6 to 10 February to showcase the summit.

Roadshows will be held in the UAE and Taiwan as well, but the dates have not been fixed yet.

In India, a roadshow of the summit will be conducted in New Delhi from 10 to 14 January and in Mumbai on 3 February. Dates for the event in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad have not been finalised.

Also read: Andhra witnessing a fierce battle between the poor and capitalists

Size and venue assume significance

The investors’ summit is being held for the first time after the YSRCP came to power in 2019.

It also assumes significance due to the size of the event and also the venue, Visakhapatnam, which the government wants to develop as the executive capital of the state as part of its three-capitals policy.

Though there have been programmes such as meeting with diplomats of several countries and with CEOs by the current government in the last few years, they were all small-scale. Now, the Jagan-led government wants to make a strong pitch to attract investments from MNCs in several sectors.

“The world economy shut down as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic till the beginning of this year. Now, the time is appropriate to hold the event as the Covid-19 bogey is behind us,” Industries Minister Gudivada Amarnath told South First on an earlier occasion.

“The summit is being held with a focus on CEOs, CXOs, industry leaders, and trade ministers from around the world in the backdrop of the economy firing up.”

Met Mr. @DeepakBagla_ CEO, @investindia along with @GummallaSrijana & presented investments that AndhraPradesh attracted in the last 2 years & presented opportunities that are in the pipeline

Requested Invest India team's support for the upcoming AP Global Investors Summit ‘2023 pic.twitter.com/4NZT7msOdH

— Gudivada Amarnath (@gudivadaamar) December 1, 2022

State ranked No 1 one on EODB

Andhra Pradesh has topped the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) rankings that were released as part of the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) jointly formulated by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the World Bank in June last year.

Prompt clearance of industry approvals, handholding of investors, mapping recommendations to departments, and appointing nodal officers were taken into account — as part of the countrywide implementation of the BRAP prescribed by the Centre.

AP Industries Minister Gudivada Amarnath, Education Minister Botsa Satyanarayana at the launch of GIS website and brochure on Dec 2 (Supplied)

In the top achiever category, Andhra Pradesh scored highest with 97.89 percent. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on 30 June, 2022, the assessment of States/UTs under BRAP 2020, the fifth edition of the exercise.

Andhra Pradesh, along with Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, was declared the “Top Achievers” based on the implementation of the plan.

Incidentally, the state Cabinet on 7 September gave a nod to green energy projects that have a collective investment of ₹81,043 crore.

Also, in a shot in the arm to the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government, the Centre in August granted in-principle approval for a ₹1,000-crore grant-in-aid for the creation of common infrastructure facilities in the Bulk Drug Park (BDP) proposed in Andhra Pradesh under a central scheme.

The BDP will come up in the KP Puram and Kodada villages of the Thondagi Mandal of the East Godavari District.

Andhra Pradesh pipped states like Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu from the south in getting the grant in aid to set up the BDP.