Reach out to investors, industrialists who gave up on Andhra: CM Naidu

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday directed officials to reach out to industrialists and investors who had forged agreements with the state but later abandoned them due to alleged mishandling by the erstwhile YSRCP government.

The Chief Minister highlighted that he himself will step in to woo them back if needed during a review of the Department of Industries today, which delved on the deals signed in the past 10 years.

"Negotiate with the industrialists who turned their backs on the state even after forging agreements with it due to the policies of the YSRCP government. If needed, I will personally talk to them," Naidu said in an official press release.

According to the CM, the erstwhile TDP government between 2014 and 2019 had signed agreements worth Rs 16 lakh crore and alleged that the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government had later driven them away with its policies.

Officials informed the CM that land pooling for industrial needs was allegedly diverted for other purposes during the YSRCP regime, which included setting aside 1,382 acres of land for welfare house sites.

The TDP chief underscored that 14,125 acres of land was made available through 64 industrial parks between 2014 and 2019 and observed that only 31 such parks were made available by the YSRCP government.

Noting that this kind of discouraging developments dampened the spirit of investors, Naidu exhorted that there is a new need to instill confidence in industrialists.

Instructing officials to speed up work in the projects which have already taken off, the CM called for the completion of projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore within this year to enable the employment of over 1.3 lakh people.

Further, he directed officials to come up with five new policies on industries, MSMEs, food processing, electronics, IT and cloud and textiles within the next 100 days.

Naidu emphasised that the policies should be good enough to attract investments with a conducive environment.

Moreover, he also directed officials to design policies to turn the southern state into a green hydrogen and green energy hub.

Similarly, he called for the drafting of proposals to create four new industrial clusters and procure Central Government approvals, adding that the clusters could come up at Kuppam, Mulapeta, Chilamathuru and Donakonda or Pamuru.

Naidu also deliberated on the Rs 11,542 crore bulk drug park at Nakkapalli, Rs 60,000 crore NTPC green hydrogen hub and others.