AP government vies with other states to host GES

Visakhapatnam: Along with Telangana state and Maharashtra, AP is vying to host US government’s high profile Global Entrepreneur Summit 2017. GES is US President Barack Obama’s flagship foreign policy programme which began in 2010. This year the GES was held at Stanford University in June with about 700 entrepreneurs, along with 300 investors from 170 countries, participating.

Next year’s global meet is expected to be held in November. If AP bags the event, it is expected that it will be held in Vizag. The US government had already announced that India would host GES 2017. “If the state bags the meet it will be held in Vizag for which we are readying a world-class convention centre in the site belonging to APIIC opposite Harbour Park. It will be ready by October next year and the GES will be held in November. The sea-facing convention centre will have about three lakh sq ft space,” collector Pravin Kumar told reporters here on Monday.

The district administration is in talks with a private group for their property on the Beach Road to jointly develop the convention centre, he said. It was during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House on June 7 this year that Mr Obama and he announced India as the host of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, the seventh country to host the event.