‘Employment first’ Is Our Policy, Says Naidu

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday made it clear that ‘employment first’ is the policy of the State government and directed the officials to formulate policies to attract investments to the State.

Holding a review meeting on the draft policies on industrial development, food processing and MSMEs at the State Secretariat here, he said: “We should function as a people-friendly government with regard to attracting industrialists to invest in the State.” The Chief Minister shared his views and experiences with the Ministers and the officials present at the meeting.

Naidu said the government is making every possible effort to attract investments to the State on a larger scale and as part of the exercise formulating new policies for all these departments. The meeting resolved to bring these new policies before the Cabinet at its next meeting. The meeting also decided to extend subsidies to those who come forward to invest in the State soon after these new policies come into effect.

The draft policies mentioned that those 200 companies which come forward first to submit their Consent of Establishment, Date of Commercial Production may be provided with more incentives while those units which provide more employment opportunities will be given an additional 10 per cent incentives.

The Chief Minister informed the meeting that the State Government is thinking of a novel way of providing industrial incentives through escrow accounts, which he felt, will help provide more encouragement for industrial progress and better employment opportunities.

“Such crucial decisions will help create employment opportunities in a much faster way. The officials should conduct a deep study on the feasibility and the necessary procedures on this,” the Chief Minister said. The MSME policy should be formulated in such a way that it focuses on the concept of ‘One Family-One Industrialist’, Naidu added.The meeting resolved to launch an industrial hub in the State naming it after world renowned industrialist, the late Ratan Tata, as the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub for taking the industrial sector much further.

Several hubs will be set up at five places in the State and one major company will be the mentor for each hub. The review meeting also discussed in detail the steps to be taken to achieve the results in the food processing sector too like aqua and poultry sectors while it cleared the proposal to provide an additional five per cent incentives for women entrepreneurs in MSME and food processing sectors.

However, the policy on the industrial sector will be brought before the Cabinet only after another detailed exercise. Ministers Kondapalli Srinivas and TG Bharat, along with the officials of the departments concerned were present at the meeting.