AP sets 6.3-lakh cr investment target

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government has set a target of achieving investments of Rs 6.3 lakh crore by March 2020 in the industrial sector to maintain 15.7% average annual growth rate. 

The state government has focused mostly on the industrial sector to create employment and increase its contribution to the GSDP.  The residual Andhra Pradesh state lost several major industries to Telangana and the AP government is now facing a tough time to generate employment to lakhs of unemployed youth in the state. 

However, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held partnership summits in Visakhapatnam inviting global and Indian investors which yielded good results. He strived to create a business ecosystem in the state. The state, which ranked no 1 in ease of doing business, has set target that Rs 21,000 crore must go into production every month until March 2020 to sustain 12% growth rate.

According to principal secretary to Industries and Investments Ajay Jain, the investment of Rs 1.3 lakh crore went into production between June 2014 and March 2018. “The government has also set a target of Rs 5 lakh crore of investment to go into production from April 2018 to March 2020,” he said. Officials said industrial sector contributed 22% to GVA in 2017-18 and the manufacturing sector contributed 9.7%. 

In fact, the Industries in Andhra Pradesh registered a tremendous growth rate of 8.49% as compared to the national growth rate of 4.4%. The state has been successful in attracting 2,850 projects which are worth Rs 15,83,563 crores and would generate employment to 36,51,216 people. 

Additionally, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) made a contribution of 80% towards employment and contributed 34% towards GSDP. 
The government also successfully brought key projects such as Kia Motors to Anantapur district.

Apart from major industries, the government is planning to set up MSME parks in all assembly constituencies to create employment to local people.  The government has set a target of 175 MSME clusters one in each constituency. 

The idea is to have an MSME with an investment of Rs 225 crore to create 1,500 jobs in each of the 175 Assembly constituencies. The government targeted that 200 parks with 30,000 MSMEs with an employment potential for three lakh people and an investment of 45,000 crore by 2023. 

The government has set key objectives to achieve by 2020. It has been decided to achieve 25% growth rate in the industrial sector and 15% growth rate in the manufacturing sector.