The Singapore government has appointed its Ambassador-at-large Gopinath Pillai as Special Envoy to Andhra Pradesh to render advice on various issues relating to the building of the new capital, including tourism and bringing in capital from foreign companies.
His appointment was announced at a joint press conference by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam after the latter met Mr. Naidu at the Secretariat here along with Mr. Pillai.
Mr. Shanmugam said the joint working group of Andhra Pradesh and Singapore Governments would deal with the technical issues. It was working quite well and the draft report of the first phase of the Master Plan to build a world class capital would be submitted by June. “Based on the Master Plan we can go beyond that”, he added.
While announcing the appointment of Mr. Pillai as Special Envoy, he said apart from traditional models, there was a need to look at new models of sources for capital like international private equity.
Expressing his happiness over the naming of Mr. Pillai as Special Envoy, the Chief Minister said he would coordinate with various departments like industries, finance and infrastructure as also in bringing in Singapore companies.
Mr. Naidu said about 25,000 acres has been acquired till now through land pooling method.
He said the total land required for core capital region development would be 50,000 acres and 37,000 acres would be acquired from farmers. Most of the remaining 13,000 acres would be Government land. He said February 28 was the last date for parting with land under land pooling scheme.
While thanking the farmers for voluntarily giving land, he said it would be a “win-win situation” for both, government and farmers.
Replying to a question from a Singapore journalist on corruption and ease of doing business in A.P., Mr. Naidu said his government was introducing e-biz and would facilitate ease of doing business.
Single desk system would be introduced and clearances would be given in 21 days. Mr. Shanmugam said there was tremendous interest on A.P. among Singapore companies.
To another question whether Singapore had the capability to develop capital city, Mr. Naidu said Singapore city was developed into a beautiful and world class capital. “ They are the best people in urban development”, he added.
Mr. Shanmugam said the Centre for Liveable Cities in Singapore has a collection of the best ideas from around the world and the best among them would be adopted.
