Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday met Australian Consul General to South India Sean Kelly and discussed technology support and cooperation in several key areas of Australian expertise, including mining, road transport, education and drylands agriculture.
The Australian delegation, comprising representatives from Queensland and Western Australia, promised the CM to provide technology support in various projects and said that they are keen on finding more ways to collaborate with the Andhra Pradesh Government.
They said, “The Chief Minister’s forward-thinking attitude, and development-oriented goals are great motivations for
us to examine investment avenues in the State and strengthen the AP-Australia ties.”
They said an MoU for setting up a university in Andhra Pradesh will be signed soon. The delegation also said that they have been working on a Geological Survey Assistance System, that will enable high quality geological mapping of Andhra Pradesh. An MoU in this regard is ready to be signed by the two sides soon.
Sean Kelly also proposed a project to improve Road Traffic Management. He explained that the investment for this project will be minimum for the GoAP, as the system will work on the basis of revenue sharing from funds collected from violators. BankTech Group of Australia has come forward to install ATMs in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh where banking facilities are not available.
Sean Kelly also met State's IT Minister Nara lokesh along with representatives of BTI Payments, a Joint Venture of BankTech Group.
The Chief Minister was pleased with all the proposals, and promised the delegation that the departments of the GoAP will support and coordinate as much as they need.
Kelly then informed the CM of the Australia Business Week in India, for which the Deputy Premier of Western Australia will be visiting as a special delegate. The event is held at the end of this month, and he requested the Chief Minister to block some time in his calendar to meet him in Vijayawada. The CM happily obliged.
In the meeting, lokesh requested Sean Kelly to extend technology support in Image Recognition to analyse Data collected using drones to develop villages.