GIS closes with 353 MoUs worth `13L cr investments

Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh government hopes that Global Investment Summit, which concluded hear on Saturday, would prove to be a gamechanger both in terms of new investments and countering the Opposition parties' criticism that no new industries were coming to the state.

The GIS, the ruling party leaders feel, will script a new success story in the implementation of ease of doing business and good governance. Hence, to consolidate the gains which rained in the form of MoUs to the tune of Rs 13 lakh crore, the government has now decided to constitute a monitoring committee consisting of the Chief Secretary to ensure that the investment pledges announced at the Global Investors' Summit translate into real action, according to Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Deals were struck in as many as 20 sectors through 353 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). The monitoring committee will meet every week and closely follow up on the implementation of the agreements, the Chief Minister said at the valedictory ceremony. "I sincerely request all of you (investors) to move from the MoU stage to the grounding of your investment at the earliest. We are committed to facilitate a speedy and hassle-free conversion of these MoUs signed into actionable investments," he added.

Besides the Chief Secretary, the committee will include officials from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and Special Chief Secretary - Industries, he noted.Further, the investments monitoring committee will sort out all the day-to-day issues being faced by the investors for facilitating speedy grounding of the MoUs.Minister for Industries Gudivada Amarnath said that they expect that at least 90 percent of the MoUs would be converted into investments.

Of the 352 agreements signed in 20 sectors, energy sector stood out through 40 MoUs worth Rs 8.84 lakh crore with a job creation potential of 1.9 lakh. In the IT & ITES sector, 56 MoUs were signed, amounting to Rs 25,587 crore of investments and will generate employment for 1,04,442 people. In the tourism sector, 117 agreements have been inked for an investment to the tune of Rs 22,096 crore, that will create employment for 30,787 people.

The renewable energy sector was one of the sectors which drew significant investments and observed these would take renewable energy generation, pumped storage and production of green hydrogen and green ammonia a long way. Earlier on the final day of GIS, the Chief Minister virtually inaugurated 14 companies which brought investments worth Rs 3,841 crore to create 9,108 jobs. Some of these companies included Kimberly Clark, Bluestar, NGC Transmission, Laurus Labs and Win Win Labs.