AP eyes a bigger investment pie at the upcoming partnership summit

Total investment intents worth about Rs 5 lakh cr are expected at summit

After achieving number one position in the ease of doing business rankings awarded to the states late 2016, Andhra Pradesh government is aiming to attract a greater number of investment intents during the latest edition of the Partnership Summit scheduled to be held from January 27-28 in the port city of Visakhapatnam.

"The industries department is given an investment target of Rs 4 lakh crore as compared to Rs 2.5 lakh crore worth of MoUs it had signed with the companies in the last partnership summit," a department official told Business Standard on Wednesday.

Together with textiles and mining the total investment intents worth about Rs 5 lakh crore were expected to be lined up at the summit even as the total MoUs covering other major sectors like energy and tourism may push the investment intents to reach a total figure of Rs 10 lakh crore this time around.

In the earlier partnership summit held in Vizag in January 2016 -- first time after the bifurcation of the state -- the AP government had signed a little over Rs 6 lakh crore worth of investment intents, largest by any state in south India. In 2015 global investor meet Tamil Nadu signed Rs 2.42 lakh crore worth of investment intents while in 2016 Karnataka signed MoUs with a total investment of little over Rs 3 lakh crore.

Sibling state of Telangana was yet to host such an event. However minister KT Rama Rao, who now holds Industries and IT portfolios, stated in 2016 that the government would be aiming at signing MoUs worth of Rs 10 lakh crore in the maiden investor meet to be held some time in 2017.

In the last summit several companies had announced big investment plans for AP. Among them was a Rs 5,000-crore ship building, defence and aerospace project announced by Anil Ambani Group. The state government has recently issued the orders in connection with the allotment of 1000 acres of land and a captive port besides other incentives for the project. Land acquisition process for the project is currently going on, according to the officials.

Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has remained firm on acquiring more land for promoting industrial investments in the state despite criticism levelled by the opposition parties that no new project has come in the last couple of years even after distributing thousands of acres of land for companies. However, the industries department defers with this criticism.

"The companies had already taken land in about 40 per cent of the proposals for which MoUs were signed in 2016. How would someone doubt that even after paying the money towards the land cost the companies do not set up their projects?" questioned an official in the industry department.

Some of these companies have lined up ground-breaking ceremonies ahead of the partnership summit, according to the official.