Vijayawada: AP’s exports have grown by 19.43 per cent in two years. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy stated this on Tuesday while launching a two-day 'Vanijya Utsav-2021' organised under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. The event laid special focus on boosting the trade and exports from Andhra Pradesh.
The Chief Minister said the government would provide full support to industrialists and use this event to bring the government closer to trade and exports. The YSRC government concentrated attention on trade development and infrastructure creation in spite of it facing overwhelming challenges in the past two years, the CM said.
The CM said the state had achieved a growth of 19.43 per cent in exports.
The state registered consistent improvement in export performance, rising from its position at the 9th place in 2018-19 to the 7th in 2019-20, and to the 4th position in 2020-21. The state increased its share in exports from $14.1 billion to $16.8 billion. The government is aiming to double the state’s contribution to exports from India by 2030. It was currently at 5.8 per cent, he said.
Recalling the decline in GSDP across the country from 6.3 per cent in 2018-19 to -7.3 per cent in 20-21, the CM said the state suffered a GSDP contraction of only 2.58 per cent in 20-21. In the last two years, 16,311 MSMEs have been established in the state by investing Rs 5204 crore and creating employment to over 1.37 lakh people, he said.
Also, 68 large mega industries were given the green signal to start operations at an investment of Rs 30,175 crore by employing around 46,119 persons. Similarly, 62 large and mega industries are also being set up at an investment of Rs 36,384 crore and creating employment to 76,916 people. In the last one year alone, 10 mega projects have been approved. This would mean an investment of Rs 26391 crore with an employment potential of 55,024 people.
The CM asserted that Andhra Pradesh is the only state to come up with three industrial corridors — the Visakhapatnam-Chennai, the Chennai-Bengaluru and the Hyderabad-Bengaluru — for accelerated industrial development across the state.
He said the government is also establishing the YSR Jagananna Mega Industrial Hub, Kopparthy, on 3,155 acres of land to attract investments of Rs 25,000 crore and create employment to one lakh youths. In the same Kopparthy, a YSR electronics manufacturing cluster (EMC) is being set up over 801 acres with an investment of Rs 730.50 crore to attract an investment of Rs 10,000 crore and generating 25,000 employment opportunities.
Also, to boost exports, the government is setting up 25 secondary food processing units, which provides direct employment to 30,000 people and indirect employment to 50,000 people.
The Chief Minister said the government is also bringing in a steel plant at an initiation cost of Rs 13,500 crore with an annual production of three million tonnes and establishing a gas distribution network by partnering with GAIL to make gas available at cheaper rates.
On betterment of skills, the CM said the government is trying to reduce the skill gap. It is establishing 25 world-class skill colleges, one in each parliamentary constituency and two skill universities in Tirupati and Visakhapatnam, to polish the skills of the students so that they would get good jobs.
AP having as high as 974km of coastline, he said the government is developing three ports -- at Bhavanapadu, Machilipatnam and Ramayapatnam -- and eight new fishing harbors at a cost of Rs 3,828 crore to benefit the fishermen families.
Ministers Mekapati Gautam, Peddireddy Ramachandra, Perni Venkatramaiah, Kurasala Kannababu, Dharmana Krishnadas, Vellampalli Srinivas, chief secretary Adityanath Das, industries director Subrahmanyam Jawwadi and other officials were present.
