The 23rd edition of CII Partnership Summit and the second Sunrise Andhra Pradesh Investment Meet began on a grand note on Friday with 128 MoUs signed for an investment of about ₹ 4.25 lakh crore. This could lead to generation of as many as 5. 5 lakh jobs, according to Information and Public Relations Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy.
About 2,000 delegates with representatives from 50 countries attended the first day of the two-day summit. The Partnership Summit is being organised by the CII in cooperation with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and the Government of AP. Showcasing of A.P. as Sunrise State impressed many.
Despite his preoccupation with Union Budget presentation on February1, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley flew down to the city to inaugurate the summit and declared that AP would be ahead of the nation’s growth rate by 4 to 5 %.
“It is unheard of any State aiming to achieve a growth rate of 14 %,” he remarked and promised hand-holding for AP to become most developed State due to injustice done to it during bifurcation.
Standing ovation
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was given a standing ovation after he made a detailed presentation on Vision 2029 to make the State the best destination in the world and to make Amaravati a futuristic city. He also announced development of Visakhapatnam, Amaravati and Tirupati as mega cities, 14 smart cities and creating economic cities in 100 to 300 acres in all the 110 municipalities.
Mr. Naidu made a strong appeal to the investors to partner with the State and make it their second home. He stated that the GSDP growth in the State was consistently outperforming the national average. It was 10.99 % last year as against nation’s overall GDP growth of 7.5 % . The target was to touch 15 % growth next year. Referring to the 328 MoUs that were signed at the last Partnership Summit that was held in Visakhapatnam in 2016, the Chief Minister said that 50 % of the MoUs had translated into projects.
Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre had high regard for AP and it would continue to extend special treatment to the State in sanctioning of various projects. He said the Smart Cities Mission had led to an urban renaissance in the country.
Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said even though the overall global economic scenario was dull, there was a lot of vibrancy in the Indian economy. She said the economy was growing at over 7 % and had the scope to grow further due to systemic reforms being undertaken through bank sector reforms, GST and demonetisation.
