Our Focus Is On Speed Of Doing Business, Lokesh Tells CII Members

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Minister for IT, Electronics & HRD Nara Lokesh on Saturday said the NDA Government is focusing on ensuring speed of doing business to create an investor-friendly environment.

He was speaking at an interactve session with the CII Southern Region Council announced to constitute the AP Government--CII Consultative Forum in a week’s time through a formal GO for effective coordination..

On the sidelines of the fourth meeting of the CII Southern Regional Council meeting held here, Lokesh interacted with Industry captains from six Southern States on the industrial developmental plans for the State of AP.

The Minister thanked CII for the special opportunity to meet CII Member CEOs from across six states here in Vijayawada and reminisced the three-decade old association of his father and Chief Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu with CII and the various visionary interventions and path breaking activities there were achieved in the erstwhile State of AP and in the bifurcated State as well.

Lokesh informed the Council about one of their poll promises as creating 20 lakh jobs in AP and that the State is growing fast with eyes on a one trillion dollar economy in the next fives. He mentioned that these jobs will only be created with focus on speed of doing business for new investments and at the same time ensuring Ease of doing business continuity for existing industries.

He reiterated the State’s commitment to Viksit AP@2047 on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat@ 2047 and that the State is working aggressively towards it.

The Minister briefed the industry leaders on the revival of the AP State Economic Development Board with the appointment of a young IAS officer as CEO to act as one-stop shop for all the industrial development of the State including focus on existing industries and their future expansion, troubleshooting their challenges. The recent floods in the State has delayed the announcement and that the same will be rolled out in the next 15 days, he said.

He opined that apart from various targeted sectoral investments, AP is targeting high on technology front, targeting to establish AI University like the lines of ISB model where he sought support and leadership of CII members.

As HRD Minister, he said he is committed to transforming KG to PG curriculum in the State. AP is aiming big time investments on creating infrastructures, Ai and Data Centres. He shared about the focused approach they are taking with specific industrial clusters in Anantapur, Kadapa, Prakasham for biofuel and Guntur and Krishna for capital establishment and North AP will be focusing on pharma and IT industry.

Referring to the Chief Minister’s vision during this term as more progressive and action-oriented, he said the fact that out of the 164 elected MLAs 88 are first-time MLAs and 17 are first time Ministers in his cabinet, who are committed to looking at competing with all other States with best success rate.

Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad in his address shared his views on the economic agenda for AP and informed the members about the visionary and proactive approach of the Chief Minister. He said the Chief Minister has redefined the PPP model as 4Ps comprising Public Private People’s Partnership to ensure playing a key role in governance of overall development.