AP Aims for 15% Growth Rate: CM Naidu

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has said the state government plans to achieve a 15 per cent growth rate.

“We aim to create wealth on a large scale by providing new opportunities to the people. The wealth thus generated can be distributed among the poor to improve the living standards of people,” the chief minister said at a business conclave on Monday.

He said a 15 per cent growth rate for AP is possible as it had achieved a growth of 13.5 per cent during the previous term of the Telugu Desam government in the 2014-19 period. “The government is implementing the necessary plans and policies to achieve this aim.”

The CM was speaking at the task force committee meeting he held with industrialists on the Swarnandhra Pradesh (Golden Andhra Pradesh) Vision-2047 at the Secretariat.

Several possibilities for AP’s growth were discussed at the first meeting of the task force chaired by the chief minister and co-chaired by Tata Sons chairman Chandrasekharan.

Ministers, CII representatives, government officials and industrialists attended the task force meeting.

Naidu shared the government's vision with them. The meeting discussed the steps to be taken in various sectors and heard the suggestions of industrialists.

Naidu stated. "Technology is now more advanced. We need to make good use of it. If we give opportunities to youth, we will get incredible results. AP has natural resources, human resources, infrastructure, highways and airports. We want to be a platform for new innovations and new ideas. We had talked about ease of doing business. Now we are talking about the speed of doing business."

Naidu said, “We had worked with the goal of having one IT employee from every household. We are now projecting the goal of having one industrialist from every family.”

The state has the necessary land, water and human resources for investment. We have announced the best policies for investment. We are working to achieve the best results in the industrial sector through these, he said.

Tata Sons executive chairman Chandrasekharan, CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee, GMR Group chairman GM Rao, L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan, TVS company chairman Venu Srinivasan, Apollo representative Preeta Reddy, Piramal group chairman Ajay Piramal, Reddy Laboratories chairman Satish Reddy and representatives of several other renowned companies attended the meeting.

The chief minister later stated on his social media page, “Met with the executive chairman of Tata Companies, N Chandrasekaran. We reflected on the remarkable legacy of Mr Ratan Tata, whose visionary leadership and contributions have left an indelible mark on India's industry landscape. He made immense contributions to the growth of our state. Tata Group continues to be an important stakeholder in the growth of Andhra Pradesh.”

Naidu added, “TCS is committed to establishing a new IT Development Centre in Visakhapatnam, with a potential for up to 10,000 jobs. In order to boost tourism and industrial growth, Indian Hotels is exploring the setting up of another 20 hotels across the state (Taj, Vivanta, Gateway, SeleQtions and Ginger Hotels) along with a large convention centre. Tata Power is evaluating over 5 GW in solar and wind projects, with a potential `40,000 crore investment.”

“We also explored potential collaboration to innovate deep tech and AI solutions for primary healthcare. Furthermore, the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub will mentor entrepreneurs across the state with the aim of achieving our 'One, One Family Entrepreneur' vision - a fitting tribute to the legend who believed in empowering grassroots,” Naidu added.