'People, Progress and Possibilities': Jagan hard sells AP at WEF to lure investors

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had a busy day at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022. He met dignitaries and captains of industry to hard sell Andhra Pradesh for investment. On 22 May, CM inaugurated the AP Pavilion at Davos. The tagline of the pavilion reads 'People, Progress, and Possibilities'. It depicts the prowess of the state for the flow of investments and explains the various policies of the government. This is a platform to showcase the investment opportunities in the State.

Initially, the Chief Minister held discussions with Prof. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF, on the potential areas, including transforming governance, investing in future areas of education, healthcare, skilling, economic growth and recovery, infrastructure development, port-led industrialization, and how the WEF platform can be leveraged to meet environmental and social governance objectives of the State.

Prof. Schwab was impressed at the potential of Andhra Pradesh, which is considered the Food Hub of India and has the largest rice belt. He emphasized the important role the State could play in addressing the food shortages. Prof. Schwab, the German-born Engineer, welcomed the advanced manufacturing partnership and extended the commitment of the WEF to meeting the objectives laid out in the agreement.

Later, the Chief Minister met Dr. Shyam Bishen, Head of Health and Healthcare, WEF, and discussed collaborating with the Forum on healthcare, biotechnology, and innovation. He hailed the initiatives taken by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in building a resilient healthcare system through the YSR Village Health Clinics for every 2,000 population, Village / Ward Secretariats decentralized system, ensuring schemes and service benefits to all citizens, Universal Health Coverage - Dr. YSR Aarogyasri - end-to-end cashless health care services, among others.

The Chief Minister also identified the Forum as a platform to explore fruitful partnerships to scale up the state-wide health initiatives and explore the setting up of the multi-specialty hospitals across the districts. During the meeting with Hans-Paul Burkner, Chairman of Boston Consulting Group (BCG), they discussed the opportunities emerging in India, specifically on, Andhra Pradesh with the global diversification of supply chains. They emphasized the importance of having a single-point interface to ensure seamless facilitation of investments. He regarded the availability of land and transparent labor contracts as of utmost importance to global investors and accessibility to connectivity and infrastructure.

The Chief Minister has emphasized that the State's ranking of no 1 also accounts for the investors' feedback in the EoDB ratings and given the port-led infrastructure and accessibility to the ports.

Burkner also regarded the investments and initiatives being taken by the State to ensure primary education and healthcare are reached to all and skill development programs with efficient labor contracts will attract investors to the State. He also emphasized the importance of existing investors being ambassadors of the State, and consistent communication with the industry partners would help promote the opportunities in the State.

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has stressed the need for modernization of the manufacturing sector to make the State a manufacturing hub focusing on green energy and advocated key infrastructure and port-led industrialization.

The Chief Minister discussed with Pedro Gomez, Head of Shaping the Future of Mobility, and D Maya Ben Dror of Sustainable Automotive and Mobility, WEF. They discussed the evolution of green mobility and challenges associated with battery disposal to ensure the transition to green mobility is net zero. CM discussed the ideas where Renewable Energy sources could be integrated with Electric Mobility charging infrastructure and generate Green Hydrogen to make the transition greener and enable sustainable manufacturing.