Lokesh Seeks Investments from US, Holds Meet in San Francisco
Vijayawada: Aiming to attract investments to Andhra Pradesh, minister Nara Lokesh held discussions at San Francisco in the United States this week.
As per an official release here, Lokesh said a data centre will be established in the state that has the “most favourable climate for investments” in India. “We would extend support in all ways if Equinix moves forward,” he said, and appealed to more entrepreneurs to come and invest in AP by establishing industries and data centres.
The government, he said, is taking steps for decentralization of development and increase the speed of doing business. Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has recently announced six policies in line with the goal of providing 20 lakh jobs to the youth in the next five years, he noted.
Lokesh attended a roundtable meeting with entrepreneurs as its chief guest. It was organised by India’s Consul General in San Francisco, Srikar Reddy.
Lokesh said, “The chief minister is waiting for large investments in AP from NRIs settled in the US. Kia is an example of the speed of doing business. The state has a favourable environment for investments. AP has the 2nd largest coastline in the country. Four new ports are coming up.”
The chief minister, he said, aimed to develop Kurnool as a drone hub. “We are making plans to make the joint Chittoor and Kadapa districts an electronics hub. Already, 25 per cent of the cell phones marketed in the country are manufactured in AP. Some 50 per cent of the ACs across the country are also manufactured in AP.”
“As part of development decentralization, we are developing a bio fuel ecosystem in Prakasam district,” the minister said.
Lokesh said, “Development works worth 5 billion dollars will be taken up in Krishna and Guntur Capital Region. Construction works in Amaravati would start in December. We are focusing on aqua exports, petrochemicals and green hydrogen industries in Godavari districts, and chemical and pharma sectors in Uttarandhra.”
He added, “A Civil Aviation University Data Center would come up in Visakhapatnam. TCS would start its operations soon. A data revolution is set to happen in India.” Industry circles, he said, are estimating that 300 billion dollars of investments will come in the electronics sector. “I am appealing to industrialists from various sectors in the US to come to AP and become partners in the comprehensive development of the state,” Lokesh added.
Consul General Srikar Reddy said, “A round table meeting has been organised on behalf of the Consulate General. The recent Drone Summit held in Vijayawada impressed everyone.”
The meeting in San Francisco was attended by Indiaspora founder MR Rangaswamy, FalconX co-founder Raju Indukuri, Google vice president Rao Surapaneni, A5 corporation CEO Vinay Krithivendi, Applied Materials CTO Om Nalamasu, Pi Datacenter CEO Kalyan Muppaneni, global industry analysts CEO Ram Reddy, IT Serve Alliance representatives Hari Gakkani, Suresh Manukonda, Vinod Babu Uppu, Vinay Parchuri, Refix AI CEO Anirudh Reddy, Clear Stone Venture director Vish Mishra, and TCS business unit head Keshav Verma.
