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Andhra Pradesh is the ideal investment destination, says Naidu

George Iype in Hyderabad

As Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
N Chandrababu Naidu is hardselling the state as the ideal investment destination, foreign investors and Indian industrialists are listening intently.

Naidu's exceptional marketing skills during the ongoing Partnership Summit in Hyderabad is expected to fetch the state investments worth Rs 280 billion.

The chief minister has submitted nearly 60 projects before scores of foreign delegates and business barons who have descended on the city for the seventh Partnership Summit, organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the state government.

The investor-friendly Naidu is not just offering simple single-window clearance to the projects. But in a series of meetings with industrialists on Tuesday and Wednesday, Naidu offered to appoint an escort executive and a senior official who will guide and assist investors through the official procedures of setting up ventures.

"My government is now SMART--simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent," Naidu told industry leaders, adding that being SMART alone does not help. "We have to realistically set our priorities. We must walk our talk," he said.

Officials finalising the projects said that the Naidu government will sign at least 14 major projects worth Rs 120.5 billion during the summit itself.

Naidu's hardselling has made the industrialists happy. "The chief minister always comes up with novel ideas. We are happy that he is the first chief minister to completely abandon bureaucracy and red-tapism for fetching real investments into his state," said Sanjiv Reddy, director, GVK Group.

One of the key projects that will be finalised during the summit is the setting up of the Special Economic Zone in the Vizag-Kakinada belt with an envisage investment of Rs 100 billion. Other projects include setting up of a hardware park on a 5,000 acre land, two mega industrial parks, an apparel park and export promotion industrial parks.

Officials said approximately Rs 12.6 billion has been envisaged for investment in tourism sector. The government is also scouting for investors for the proposed establishement of a Disney Land at Hyderabad on 3,000 acres of land, a night safari park and a visitors zone in Tirupati.

On the charges that his IT-driven image is more hype than reality, Naidu answered the captains of industry with a new industrial and infrastructure policy framework.

"It is true that information and technology has played an important role in augmenting the brand image of Andhra Pradesh. But we are also building roads and bridges and bringing electricity, water and drainage to the people in rural areas," Naidu said. "For me, IT is not just information technology alone. It stands for Idea Transfer", he said.

General opinion is that as Naidu's ideas get transformed during the Partnership Summit, the event will become a bonanza for the chief minister in terms of foreign investment.

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