Chandrababu Naidu woos UK investors to invest in his state

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has made a strong plea to British industries to invest in his state and participate in building the new capital Amaravati into "one of the best capitals in the world".
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief said that he was confident that Andhra Pradesh would be among India's top three states by 2020 and be ranked top-most on the happiness index by 2029.
"There are a lot of reforms going on in our state, across automobiles, agro-processing, defence and aerospace and so many other areas," Naidu said while addressing a gathering of entrepreneurs and business chiefs after accepting the Golden Peacock Award for Leadership in Public Life and Economic Transformation from the Institute of Directors (IoD) India here last evening.

"I request all industry friends here [UK] to come to Andhra Pradesh for investment, it is a win-win situation. We do business in a sincere way," he said.
Naidu also highlighted India as the only investment destination in the world that had the potential of double digit growth.
"India is a great country with inherent strengths of demographic dividend, maximum English speakers and we are very strong in technology. Google, Microsoft, all these companies have one top executive from India and of all the Indians in such companies, one out of four will be from my state," he added.

Naidu received the award from UK secretary of state for international development Priti Patel, who herself was awarded by the IoD India for Leadership in Public Service & UK-India Economic Relations.

Patel, the first Indian-origin member of the UK Cabinet, also highlighted how her Department for International Development (DfID) was working closely with the state government of Andhra Pradesh.
"We are paving the way for sustained and inclusive growth in the state by looking at investment through our private sector investors. Our own partnership in Amaravati is on intelligent transport on the future of the smart city," she said.
The other key Golden Peacock Award winners at the 17thIoD India convention in London included Distinguished Fellowships for UK minister of state for housing and planning Alok Sharma and Ahmed Bin Sulayem, executive chairman of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC).

A string of Indian and global companies, such as Volvo, Capgemini, State Bank of India and Larsen & Toubro, received the annual Golden Peacock Awards for Corporate Governance and Sustainability.