Stage set for Partnership Summit in Vizag

The CII Partnership Summit 2018, beginning here on Saturday, is expected to witness signing of MoUs involving over Rs 2.50 lakh crore of investment in Andhra Pradesh, officials said.

At the three-day annual event, Andhra Pradesh is hoping to sign over 280 MoUs with companies in various sectors. This is expected to generate employment for 4.25 lakh people.

To be inaugurated by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, the summit with the theme 'Charting new India's global integration strategy' will be attended by several Union Ministers and 2,000 delegates from India and abroad.

Union Commerce and Industry Ministry Suresh Prabh will be the chair of the summit, being organised by the state government in partnership with hjis ministry's Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will meet top business leaders on the sidelines of the event.

There will be sessions on sectors such as automobile, tourism, aerospace & defense, textiles, renewable energy, food processing, medical equipment and electronics.

There will be special plenary session on 'Technologies for tomorrow'.

This is the third consecutive year that Andhra Pradesh is hosting the summit and it is being held at a time when the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government of the state is virtually on a warpath with its ally BJP, which is heading the ruling coalition at the Centre for not fulfilling the commitments.

Chandrababu Naidu is continuing the pressure on BJP-led NDA to fulfil commitments made at the time of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to carve out separate Telangana state in 2014.

He is miffed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not doing justice to the state during last three-and-half years. The TDP is gearing up to further mount the pressure on BJP during the second leg of budget session, beginning on March 5.

Alleging that Andhra Pradesh suffered huge loss due to division, the TDP chief is demanding that the Centre do the handholding to the residuary state till it comes up to be at par with other southern states.

In the first Partnership Summit held in 2016, MoUs involving investment worth Rs 4.68 lakh crore were signed. The projects, if realised, would create 9.59 lakh jobs. Last year's edition saw MoUs worth Rs 1.90 lakh crore were signed and the expected jobs were 3.58 lakh.

The state government claims the MoUs are in various stage of implementation.

--IANS

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