AP woos TN investors with natural, infra advantage

Chennai: Citing common culture, similar geography, top rank in the ease of doing business, land bank of over 48,000 acres, 70 per cent population in working age, AP Minister for Finance Buggana Rajendranath wooed industrialists to invest in Andhra Pradesh.

The minister pointed out that there are various sectors where both the states can work hand-in-hand like agriculture, maritime, infrastructure, green energy, logistics, tourism and others. Speaking at the roadshow and investors' meet ahead of the AP Global Investors Summit-2023 to be held on March 2-4 at Visakhapatnam, Rajendranath said: "Geography and the culture are the same between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh." He said after the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) nothing much can be done with taxation matters to attract investments. The natural advantage that a state offers to an investor will be the deciding factor for investment commitments.

According to him, Andhra Pradesh offers growth opportunities for investors unlike other states where the opportunities have reached a plateau after reaching the saturation levels. He also added that in the last 3.5 years, AP has approved investments to the tune of Rs 1.9 lakh crore which would help create employment for around 90,000 people in the state.

He said the state was spending a significant amount of its budget on developing air connectivity in the state, with a Greenfield international airport coming up at Bhogapuram near Visakhapatnam at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore.

Four new ports are being built at Ramayapatnam, Machilipatnam, Bhavanapadu and Kakinada. The state also intends to develop Inland Waterways, which will reduce cost of logistics for moving cargo within and outside the state. Twenty-seven locations have been identified as prioritized terminals.

The waterways will have potential to handle 10 MT by 2029. Andhra Pradesh is in the process of developing three national industrial corridors in the state, the only state to do so in the country, he added. Andhra Pradesh has listed 13 sectors - agriculture and food processing, aerospace and defence, automobiles/electric vehicles, textiles/apparels, industrial logistics, petroleum/petrochemicals, tourism/hospitality, IT/electronics etc- as the focus industries.