Govt confident of 90% realisation

Visakhapatnam: Of the Rs 13 lakh crore investments pledged at the Global Investors Summit (GIS), the Andhra Pradesh government is confident of realising at least 90 percent of it, said industries minister Gudivada Amarnath on Friday.Addressing the media, Amarnath said, "I wouldn't say these Rs 13 lakh crore investments would realise 100 percent. Industrialists may face financial problems. But there will be 90 percent realisation for sure. Our government can give that assurance and we have that credibility." He asserted that people as well as the industrialists know the fact, which was pivotal to attracting many big investments.

Amarnath made these observations while answering a query on how generally investment pledges after summits do not translate 100 percent across the country. Speaking about the TDP government, he alleged that they could not realise even 10 percent of the Rs. 18 lakh crore pledged through four summits. According to the IT Minister, the southern state, under the leadership of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has realised 89 percent of all the investment pledges made in the past three and a half years. Attributing this translation rate to the CM's credibility, vision and his virtue of living up to his word, he said that these attributes played a key role in attracting and establishing industries. However, Amarnath, who also handles the portfolios of IT, handlooms and textiles, infrastructure and investment has conceded that the ruling YSRCP government could not host an event like the GIS due to known reasons such as the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

"In the past three years, we didn't have the possibility to conduct summits like this, because of Covid and other reasons. However, the government forged many agreements under the leadership of the CM on many occasions," he stated.

The minister said AP focused on 14 to 15 sectors but managed to attract investments in 20 sectors, amounting Rs 13 lakh crore. He said the government will seriously follow up all these pledges, including establishing liaison officers to each sector, and admitted that responsibility has increased on the government. MoUs for Rs 11.8 lakh crore have been exchanged on Monday and agreements for another Rs 1.2 lakh crore will be exchanged on Saturday, he added.