Amaravati: Three big tickets to invest in defence sector in AP: Goutham Reddy

Amaravati: The top three defence contractors in the United States of America, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems committed to visit Andhra Pradesh to establish defence manufacturing units, informed the Mekapati Goutham Reddy, Minister for Industries and Commerce.

Speaking to The Hans India on Sunday, after returning from New Delhi, where he participated in Defence Expo 2020, Goutham Reddy said that representatives of various companies were very much impressed during their interaction.

He said that after discussing with them, they said that they committed to come to Andhra Pradesh. They already placed the teams for further procedure.

The Minister informed that after interacting with them one-on-one meetings, they explained their detailed plans to invest in Donakonda, AP. The defence manufacturing include missile tank building and others were discussed. They have expressed satisfaction over the approach of the State government and initiatives also.

Apart from that, he organized a roundtable conference with the world's top most players in aerospace and defence, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Airbus, and Jacobs attended.

The delegation briefed the participants about investment opportunities in AP & the efforts being undertaken for upskilling of local talent. The delegation also gathered inputs from the industry players on aligning the State's policy ecosystem to the global aerospace and defence industry standards.

The Rolls Royce expressed commitment to provide funding for skill development of 100 women entrepreneurs at Visakhapatnam, through the Central Government. The company will come, establish their office here in Andhra Pradesh and provide a skilling programme to the women entrepreneurs, he added.

Further, he revealed that the Cabinet has approved a proposal for establishing an Industrial Node at Krishnapatnam at an estimated extent of 2,500 acres. This will be developed as an Industrial park shortly. Apart from that, the government has identified more than 10,000 acres as suitable for developing the industrial nodes. Government will develop them also at the same speed, he added. Once all these industrial parks developed, then the growth will take momentum, he said.