N Chandrababu Naidu to set foundation stone for women industrial park today

Visakhapatnam: In a bid to encourage more women to go for entrepreneurship efforts, International Trade and Technology Hub will be set up in the city with an investment of Rs 16 crore, human resources development minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said. Andhra Pradesh government has allotted 50-acre land at Girijala village of Anandapuram mandal in Visakhapatnam district to the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India (ALEAP).

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will set the foundation stone for it on Wednesday, the HRD minister said, adding that around 200 women entrepreneurs will be provided land in the industrial park to set up their business units. They will also be given required technical assistance and training programmes at the park.

The ALEAP has so far trained more than 10,000 women in the city. Of them, around 500 have set up small scale units including rice factory, garments, packaging and food processing. Around 20-30 trained persons have received small land parcels through APIIC to set up their units, the association president K. Ramadevi said.

She added that ALEAP members can avail business loans from public-sector banks at a reduced interest rate. It has signed an MoU with the State Bank of India and Andhra Bank to offer long-term loans to members at 0.5 per cent lesser interest rate. “Banks would offer loans upto Rs 2 crore depending on the requirement of the unit. Most of these women have participated in our Entrepreneurship Development Programme. They have not formed a cluster till now due to lack of a dedicated industrial land here,” the ALEAP president said.

Currently, the NGO has two industrial parks in Hyderabad and one in Vijayawada. The state government has also allotted 50-acre land each at Rajahmundry and Nellore to establish industrial parks. It has sought approvals to set up similar parks in Anantapur and Guntur as well. ALEAP-India is hosting a three-day international conference in the city from Wednesday to encourage women entrepreneurship through innovation, incubation and industrial training. The three-day event will be a platform for the women entrepreneurs across the country to develop business networks and identify trade opportunities.