AP Sets Up Joint Committee With CII To Accelerate Business Growth

Vijayawada: In a bid to give a fillip to Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investments, the Andhra Pradesh government has joined hands with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to establish a Joint Consultative Committee to facilitate speed of doing business.

The decision was made following discussions during the fourth CII Southern Regional Council’s special meeting with IT, Electronics, HRD, and Real-Time Governance (RTG) Minister Nara Lokesh. An order to constitute the consultative committee initially for two years was issued by Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad on Saturday through Government Order No. 58 on behalf of Industries & Commerce (Programme-III). The forum will be headed by Lokesh in his capacity as Minister for RTG and the Chief Secretary will be the vice-president. CII AP State Council chairman will be the member-secretary.

The order stated that AP has been actively inviting investments to bolster its economic growth and development. The establishment of the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) was a significant step towards creating a favorable investment climate by streamlining processes and offering a single point of contact for investors. It has been actively playing the role of a catalyst for promoting public and private investments to achieve the vision of becoming the most preferred global destination by 2050.

According to the GO, to fully realise the State’s economic potential and overcome the challenges, enhance its approach by involving the private sector more directly the government has decided to enhance its approach by involving the private sector more directly. It said to this end, it has partnered with the CII to build a consultative forum. The collaboration aims to leverage the expertise and resources of private enterprises, ensuring a more inclusive and dynamic economic environment. By fostering public-private partnerships and engaging in continuous dialogue with industry leaders, AP wants to address existing gaps and drive sustainable economic growth. Further it is essential to have more diversification and high adoption of advanced technologies for broader industrial growth.

The government came to the conclusion that partnership with CII will help diversify the industrial base by promoting sectors like renewable energy, IT hardware, biotechnology, and high-precision manufacturing. This will reduce the State’s reliance on a few industries and foster broader economic growth. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, during his earlier stint, had played a key role in bringing investments by holding Sunrise AP and CII Partnership Summits in Visakhapatnam.

During the discussions he held with key players in CII in Vijayawada, Lokesh had pronounced that the AP government under the visionary leadership of Naidu is aspiring to earn a place among the top three industrialised States, and to make rapid strides in IT, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and MSME sectors. As such there is a need for concerted efforts to attract the much-needed investments by capitalising on the State’s conducive business environment & its locational advantages and suggested to form a Joint Consultative Forum between the APEDB and CII.