AP offers stable govt, good governance, infra support to business: YS Jagan

Vijayawada: AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy interacted with captains of industries from over 35 nations to explore business potentials, while highlighting the pros and cons in the state.

Mr Jagan while inaugurating the one-day ‘Diplomatic Outreach’ programme on Friday said, “A stable government always ensures an environment that is conducive for industry and business and AP assures political stability.

I know AP does not have metros like Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, but, we have inherent strength that supports business environment. For instance, the 975-km long coastal line with four ports is an asset and we have six airports in the state.”

Highlighting the importance of a stable government for business development, Mr Jagan said that “I take pride in telling you that people have given us a total mandate. We can assure you of good governance which is important to attract business investments and the government has taken several initiatives towards this. Our government is committed to offering a corrupt-free administration with transparent policies. In addition, we have good relations with our neighbouring states and the Centre. I thank the Centre for extending its support in organising the event. ”

Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy spoke about the several advantages of AP including its industrial promotion policy as the most desired destination for trade, commerce and investments. Mekapati Goutham Reddy, minister for industry and commerce, highlighted the investment potential in several sectors such as infrastructure, pharma, agro products, textiles, marine products, skill development, technology transfer, healthcare, backward area development projects which would be offered for foreign direct investment (FDI) at the summit.
Another key programme of Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy the ‘Navaratnalu’ was also highlighted. Tourism and Buddhist circuits in the state would also be looked at as investment potential segments for FDI.
On job reservations for locals, Mr Jagan said, “Recently, we have enacted 75 per cent reservation for locals in jobs. Several governments have also adopted this policy. This situation prevails in a majority of countries as nations prefer jobs for locals.”

PPAs : The government has decided to renegotiate power purchase agreements (PPAs) including those PPAs with high tariffs, which have become controversial. “If Discoms are not in a position to honour the bills, what’s the point in having PPAs. The previous government left the Discoms with Rs 20,000 crore burden. We’re in the process of correcting the flaws by renegotiating PPAs,” said Mr Jagan.

Skill development : The AP government will be setting up skill development centres in every Parliamentary constituency. We are not asking for funding. The state government will support students so as to enhance their skill set and create quality manpower for industry.

After bifurcating in June 2014, the residuary AP had three partnership summits. The last three-day Partnership Summit was held at Visakhapatnam in February 2018 and witnessed signing of 734 memorandum of understanding (MoUs) amounting to over Rs 4.4 lakh crore. However, the net realisation of investments from the past three partnership summits were more than Rs 16,000 crore and about 2,700 industrial units reached the completion stage of projects.

During the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's regime, the partnership summit was held once. The YSRC government is of the view that the partnership summits in the past focused only on industry, whereas the outreach investment summit will encourage several countries to invest in AP, said an official.