Swiss Innovation Park to come up in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: An innovation park on the lines of Swiss Innovation Park will come up in Vizag. In a boost to medical devices manufacturing park coming up at Vizag, Switzerland-based venture capital firm Med Tech Innovation Partners (MTIP) has agreed to set up the innovation park in the city.

The MoU in this regard will be signed by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu with the MTIP representatives during the upcoming World Economic Forum Summit in Davos.

MTIP has been instrumental in building the renowned Swiss Innova-tion Park, an independent catalyst for innovation in biotech and biomedical engineering, sciences, and technologies.

Foundation stone for a medical devices manufacturing park in a sprawling 200 acres near Anakapalle had already been laid. MTIP’s innovation park helps design new generation medical and health care devices.

Mr Naidu set foundation stone for South Asia’s first dedicated medical devices manufacturing park at Nadupuru village in the district in August. Vizag’s manufacturing park is called AP Med Tech Zone (AMTZ).

Over 50 companies have already shown interest and 38 have submitted Expression of Interest (EOI) letters.  AMTZ, a company under Government of Andhra Pradesh, which has also received approval for funding on June 1, 2016 from the state Cabinet will implement the project of setting up the park.

There will be in-house high capital-intensive common scientific facilities helping medical device manufacturers to reduce the cost of manufacturing in the country.  AMTZ will provide modern state-of-art common facilities such as specialised laboratories, warehousing, testing centre apart from 100 to 150 independent manufacturing units, each in a built-in ready to use area of 0.5 to 1 acre each.

“MTIP will create required eco system for innovation in medical devices manufacturing which will aid  the prospects of AMTZ. This is a big boost to the medical manufacturing industry in Vizag,” said a senior district official.

Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) CEO, J Krishna Kishore recently met key players of MTIP and discussed possibilities for creating a global ecosystem for Medtech innovations in Andhra Pradesh. MTIP has been instrumental in building the renowned Swiss innovation Park.