The Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone at Duvvada, which started functioning as Visakhapatnam Export Processing Zone in 1989 under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce, has registered an increase in exports by 29.35% beating economy slowdown.
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Spread over 360 acres near Gajuwaka, the industrial corridor of Visakhapatnam, it has good rail link and seamless connectivity amid greenery and solar power generation to meet its requirement. The zone has not only increased exports from the city, but also provided jobs to several local youth.
According to A. Ram Mohan Reddy, Development Commissioner of VSEZ, with the collective effort of all the 53 developers and 472 units, it has achieved the highest exports of merchandise and services to the tune of ₹44,571 crore in the first half of the financial year as against ₹34,459 crore of the corresponding period of last year. It has recorded a whopping increase in turnover, the highest among all the SEZs of the country during the period.
Despite the economy slowdown, which hit all sectors very badly, the VSEZ has put up a remarkable performance. Incidentally, India is one of the forerunners in setting up of SEZs, Kandla being the first and VSEZ being the seventh to be set up in the country.
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Mr. Reddy has told The Hindu that they are confident of achieving the target of ₹85,000-crore turnover during the current fiscal accounting for whopping 14% growth braving adverse market conditions.
Investment
India has 351 notified SEZs and out of this, 232 are operational. The investment made by these SEZs so far is ₹5.07 lakh crore and it provided employment to 20.61 lakh compared to 1.34 lakh in 2006. Exports are to the tune of ₹7.01 lakh crore from 5,109 SEZ units in the country during 2018-19.
Besides Andhra Pradesh, VSEZ has jurisdiction over Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Yanam. The activity is very prominent in A.P. and Telangana. The contribution of VSEZs to the country’s exports has also been phenomenal at ₹74,747 crore during 2018-19 financial year and attracted investment of ₹55,452 crore providing employment to more than 3,45,134 apart from support to infrastructure, domestic industries, domestic service providers and local economy.
The SEZs, which have achieved the highest growth rate this fiscal in exports, are APIIC Ltd, Naidupeta, Sricity Special Economic Zone, FAB City SPV (India) Limited, Brandix India Apparel City-Atchutapuram, Bharatiya International SEZ Ltd at 546%, 219%, 152%, 85% and 63% respectively despite market crisis.
The overall employment generation in SEZs of A.P. and Telangana has touched 3.45 lakh as on June 30 with software sector leading in employment generation with 2.79 lakh followed by textiles and garments with 20,136, pharma with 17,913 and leather and footwear with 11,498. As on date, 472 units are operational in the VSEZ.