The Hindu Business Line : Industrial houses keen on investing in AP: CM

ALMOST all the representatives of the 13 industrial houses with whom the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had one-to-one meetings on Wednesday at the `SUMINFRA-2004', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Bangalore, have agreed to invest in the State.

Addressing a press conference on his return from Bangalore on Thursday, Dr Reddy said that the industrialists had shown keen interest in the opportunities available in the State for their new investment and expansion plans. While the MTR group showed interest in setting up a food park in the State, IBM India was interested in establishing a disaster recovery centre in the Financial District in Hyderabad.

Besides the two, Advanta India Ltd and Avastha Gengraine have also shown interest in establishing their research and development units in the State for production of quality seeds. Similarly, the Wipro chief, Mr Azim Premji, assured the Chief Minister that his company would expand its on-going educational activities in AP.

These apart, the Chief Minister had one-to-one meetings with heads of Lucent Technologies Ltd, Quest Pvt Ltd, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Ltd, Biocon India Ltd, Columbia Asia Hospitals Pvt Ltd, HP Global Soft Ltd, Strand Genomics Pvt Ltd, Force Computers and NTTF Industries Ltd.

Dr Reddy said that he had sought the Centre's help for the establishment of Max Fab, a mega fabrication facility for microprocessors, in the Hardware Park here, as the State Government could not afford to put in the entire money. He made a request in this regard to the Planning Commission Secretary, Mr Rajiv Ratna Shah, who also attended the conference in Bangalore.

The Chief Minister said that he had also asked for the Central Government's support for the setting up of the AP Broadband Network that would cost Rs 560 crore. The State Government had made it clear that it was ready to allocate 1,400 acres of land, free of cost, to the Union Government near Vijayawada for the establishment of the proposed Automobile Test Track.

Replying to a question, the Chief Minister said that a separate outfit would be established in the State to do the follow-up job for facilitating smooth flow of investments. A special officer for each sector like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, infrastructure and food processing would be appointed in this regard.

He said that the consortium led by the Indian Oil Corporation was having a re-look at its proposed LNG project at Kakinada, which was estimated to cost about Rs 18,000 crore. Nevertheless, the Chief Minister stated that the next area of development in the State would be Kakinada-Visakhapatnam region that has adequate water resources.

Dr Reddy said that he had explained to the industrialists that his Government was according high priority for the industrial sector though it was considered as "pro-agriculture". He told that there was every possibility of providing power to the industries at low tariff rates in the coming years. In this context, he pointed out to them that the State was providing power to the food processing industry at Rs 1.70 per unit, "the lowest in the country".

The Chief Minister said that there should be constructive cooperation between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to invite higher investments into the two States.

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