Achieve highest living standards

Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed the officials to ensure highest living standards in the State, during a review meeting on ‘Competitiveness and Ease of Living’ at the Secretariat on Friday.

He opined that still there were some gaps in growth, since certain sub-sectors performance was not as expected. Chandrababu Naidu asked officials to ensure all the three main sectors agriculture, industry and service and sub sectors within them should achieve the targeted goals.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the State witnessed only around 6 per cent growth rate till 2014, but during the last four years the State government was able to maintain double digit growth and above 10.5 percent as an average.

He said that during the current financial year, the growth rate stood at 11.22 per cent. He asked the officials to ensure 16 per cent growth rate. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu achieved more than 53 per cent growth within the service sector, whereas the Telangana State was witnessing a negative trend in this sector.

At the same time, there was positive trend in this sector in Andhra Pradesh, with 9 per cent growth in the GVA. Focusing on tourism will help improve the performance of service sector, Chandrababu Naidu opined, while suggesting to the officials to encourage private players to construct three-star, five-star and other tourism hotels in the State.

He said that due to the infrastructure developed in Hyderabad, the growth of economy was high in Telangana when compared to Andhra Pradesh. The Chief Minister suggested to officials to focus on the aquaculture and it would help them achieve 20 per cent growth.

Referring to the Happiness Index, Chandrababu Naidu said that AP secured 44th rank among the States in the world. At the same time, the Happiness Index of the country is 133, he said. Encouraging sports, culture, tourism and others will improve the happiness of the people, Naidu said.