Hyderabad accounted for bulk of the IT/ITES exports, with the port city of Visakhapatnam coming a distant second.
Announcing the performance of IT/ITES sector in the 2006-07 fiscal year, STPI Hyderabad director E Manoj Kumar said that the state has targeted IT/ITES exports of over Rs 25,000 crore ($ six billion) during the current fiscal year 2007-08. He said that the state is poised to post a growth of 33 to 35 percent in this fiscal.
"Andhra Pradesh has recorded steady growth rate in IT/ITES exports achieving 48 percent increase over the previous year's exports against the national average growth rate of 33 percent. Once again, AP has proved as a major IT growth centre in the country. The growth in Tier-II cities is also steadily catching up.
Visakhapatnam has emerged as the next destination in the state recording a growth of more than 100 percent over the previous year's exports. The other cities like Vijayawada, Tirupati and Warangal are also contributing to the growth of the IT sector in the state," Kumar pointed out.
He said that as many as 174 new units had been added in 2006-07 fiscal year as STP units.
"The growth is stable as in the previous year as we can see that there are three to four additions every week on the average. Major companies such as Broadridge Financial
Solutions, DMV Market Research, Gameshastra, HSBC Software Development, Hyundai Engineering, Pindarset BPO, Tech Mahindra, Thomson Corporation, Xilinx
Technology Services, Zensar etc started their operations in Hyderabad during the year," said Kumar.
"Also, 185 existing companies expanded their activities indicating the consistent growth. 34 foreign companies were added during the year in addition to 140 Indian companies," he added.
The STPI Hyderabad Director said that during the year, two IT Parks were added to meet the growing infrastructure requirements of the industry. Many companies, including Polaris, Franklin Templeton, Kanbay and UBS established their campuses in Hyderabad, which is an indicator that the state has emerged as their permanent business destination.
The projected investments by the newly registered units are estimated at Rs 1,900 crore (Rs 19bn), including Rs 603 crore (Rs 6.03bn) in foreign companies, Rs 626 crore (Rs 6.26bn) in Indian companies and Rs 671 crore (Rs 6.71bn) in IT parks.
Thanks to the robust growth in exports, the share of Andhra Pradesh in the IT/ITES exports during 2006-07 has grown to 14 percent of the total IT/ITES exports of Rs 134,000 crore ($ 30 billion) from the country.
Five companies recorded exports of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10bn) and above; three companies accounted for exports between Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 5bn-Rs10bn); 24 companies notched up exports between Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore (Rs 1bn-Rs5bn) and 387 companies clocked exports in the range of Rs 1 crore to Rs 100 crore (Rs10mn-Rs 1bn).
Almost 68 percent of the IT/ITES exports from AP were made to USA and Canada, with Europe coming next with 18 percent, Asia Pacific and Middle East countries with 11 percent and other geographical areas accounting for the remaining three percent.
Segment-wise, IT services accounted for 44 percent of the exports, followed by ITES/BPO with 33 percent and enterprise applications and other segments with 23 percent.
AP IT Secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi said that the Alsbridge survey report has named Visakhapatnam as one among the top 10 outsourcing destinations in India. Export growth from the port city was 100 percent during 2006-07 and the exports crossed the Rs 245 crore (Rs 2.45bn) mark.
Major companies, which began operations in Vizag during the year include HSBC, Satyam and Wipro.
A new IT corridor is coming up in Rishikonda and exports from Vizag are expected to reach Rs 1,000 crore annually by 2010.
The total employment in the IT sector in the state has reached 187,450 at the end of 2006-07 fiscal year, compared to 151,789 at the end of the previous year.
Thus, over 35,000 jobs were added in the IT/BPO sector in a single year. About four lakh (4,00,000) new jobs are likely to be added in the IT/BPO sector in the state in the next two years, including 1.5 lakh (1,50,000) in the current year and 2.5 lakh (2,50,000) in the next fiscal, Joshi added.
The STPI Hyderabad director said that AP's growth was the highest at 48.4 percent among the southern states, with Tamil Nadu coming second with 46 percent and Karnataka ranking third with 29 percent growth.
However, Andhra Pradesh continued to rank fourth in terms of IT/ITES exports among the states in the country, with Karnataka (exports of Rs 48,000 crore or Rs 480bn), Maharashtra (figures yet to be announced) and Tamil Nadu (Rs 18,586 crore or Rs 185.86bn) occupying the top three slots.
However, AP's share of total IT/ITES exports in the country is likely to rise to 18 percent in the current fiscal year 2007-08.