ADB to consider funding for MSME parks in AP

Tirupati: State government is going to convene another industrial convention in Tirupati during the first week of September. In its bid to establish Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) parks in all the constituencies, the government has been planning this convention to focus on industrialists at state and national-level.

Addressing at the zonal convention of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday, Minister for Industries N Amaranatha Reddy has attributed the credit of standing first in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ to the response from industrialists. During the three investors’ summits held in Visakhapatnam, big industrialists got opportunity to participate and expressed willingness to establish about 135 MSME parks in the Assembly constituencies, he said, stressing on the need to involve industrialists for setting up more such parks.

For this purpose, the proposed convention in Tirupati has been planned, he stated. Common Facility Centre (CFC) will be established for connecting all MSME parks. He recalled the efforts of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has given the incentives to industries in 2014 which were due since 2004.

Representatives of CII has sought for land through APIIC to establish industries and transport facilities to industrial corridors. CII AP Chairman Rudra Raju, Vice Chairman Galla Vijay Naidu, Vice Chairman, Tirupati Zone Galla Rajasekhar and others from across the state have
participated.

Earlier, the Minister has met the Vice-President of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wencai Zhang in Tirupati and asked for more loans to establish industries in AP. During his tour to India between July 18-21, Zhang has visited Chittoor district to observed industrial nodes, the Minister has explained the programmes that were taking place on the industrial front in the State.

Saying that for Visakhapatnam-Chennai corridor, ADB has sanctioned Rs 4,125 crore loan out of Rs 5,544 crore and the funds were being utilised appropriately, he told Zhang to provide loan to industries which will come up to establish their units in MSME parks. This will facilitate the state to witness more development besides creating employment opportunities by 10 times more.

In his response, Zhang observed that AP has been doing well on industrial front and giving more encouragement to industrialists. “I have already met Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Industries Commissioner on Thursday night at Amaravati. If a detailed project report on the proposed MSME parks is prepared and sent to the ADB, we will consider it positively,” he assured.

Minister has requested him to provide Rs 2,573 crore as loan to industrial nodes to be established in 28,196 acres in Visakhapatnam, Atchutapuram, Nakkapalli, Chittoor South and North clusters. Other officials of ADB and the special representative of state government Preetham Reddy, District Industries Centre (DIC) General Manager Anil Kumar Reddy, APIIC Zonal Manager Ram and others took part.