A major breakthrough was achieved by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, in his one day trip to Dubai. In an initiative to the Partnership Summit to be held in Visakhapatnam very shortly, Naidu has gone to Dubai to invite local Industrialists personally. As a part of his day long tour, on Friday, Naidu has succeeded to attract Dubai and UAE Industrialists and Investors to come to Andhra Pradesh.
A Memorandum of Understanding with International Airlines, Emirates, to start its activities from Amaravati was signed in the presence of Indian Ambassador to UAE Navdeep Suri. The MoU signed also included a discussion on setting up a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO), an aviation training centre and a manufacturing unit of in-flight consumables. These are likely to bring in an investment of almost Rs 30,000 crore.
In Another important bilateral was held with Mohammed Ahmed Al Zarooni, the Director General of Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (DAFZA), Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) ad Director of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE). They discussed the multinational effort to set up the AeroCity project in AP, with KPMG as the consultant, and some financiers from Saudi Arabia. These Dubai are having ties with Air Bus and NASA in manufacturing of interior materials and other items related to Aerospace. They will submit a detailed project report within three months, and at the request of the Chief Minister, they will bring a proposal to be finalised during the Partnership Summit.
The Chief Minister asked officials of DP world, which operates 78 marine and inland terminals in 40 countries, to set up a Special Economic Zone in AP. The group provides maritime services, logistics and ancillary services.
Naidu also met Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO, Raj Jit Singh Walia, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Gaurav Khanna, Vice President – Corporate Finance & Business Development.
The Chairman said that Indian ports must remove bottlenecks in the supply chain and build logistics and industrial parks. “Ports all over the world grew because of these facilities”, he said. He also said that one of their representatives is visiting India on Monday, and will be asked to extend their trip to meet a team from Government of AP.
The Chief Minister asked them to explore at least three suitable locations to establish logistics parks, and take a decision in 3 months.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also met Sharafuddin Mohammad Hussain, Vice Chairman of Sharaff Group as a part of his Dubai tour. The Chief Minister was informed that Sharaff Group executives have visited AP to explore opportunities and they have seen some land parcels for a Food Processing Zone.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had met officials from the Phoenix Group, a global agrifood and resource enterprise. The officials informed that they will start a Mega Integrated rice mill in Samarlakot near Kakinada Port which is going to provide 400 to to 500 employment to local youth. and food processing plant works as proposed earlier in the month of April. The Chief Minister explained the innovative methods that are being adopted in Andhra Pradesh in the field of agriculture. The Chief Minister also asked the Phoenix group officials to explore locations for peanut farming and manufacturing of peanut butter in Anantpur.
Naidu met the officials from Conares, a steel manufacturing and engineering firm based out of Dubai. Bharat Bhatia, CEO of Conares informed the Chief Minister that they are the largest steel makers in UAE and export to US, UK and Europe in large quantities.
Chief Minister also met officials from Kaaf Investments, a Dubai based investment group. They informed the Chief Minister that they can create a $300 Million fund for AI in AP and they can also get entrepreneurs to fund projects in AP
Chandrababu Naidu met Fasi Akhtar, CEO of Sigfox, a leading IOT ( Internet of Things) connectivity provider in Dubai. Sigfox is a French company dealing in IOT devices and they specialize in developing low power consuming devices and base stations. The Chief Minister asked the officials from Sigfox to visit AP soon and roll out a detailed proposal for their design and manufacturing purpose.
In his final round Dubai, Naidu addressed Partnership Summit 2018 Road Show in Dubai. He said, “We have public service ordinance, which will ensure a responsive government. Our focus areas are clearly defined: Agri and food processing, Aerospace and Defence, Energy, IT, life Sciences, leather, empowering MSMEs and others”.
“We have been able to develop a strong industrial ecosystem, and each sector has concentrated its development in specific areas. For example, the automobile sector in Anantapur, manufacturing in Vizag, Prakasam and Chittoor and solar energy in Kurnool. We are following the cluster approach in every district and region.”
“In food processing, North Andhra leads in cashew, mango, sugarcane and coconut. Eastern and Western Andhra are leading in paddy, coconut, banana, oil and palm. The Rayalaseema region is famous for groundnut, papua, pomegranate, sweet orange, meat and milk. The Southern coast of Andhra is known for sweet orange, spices, sugarcane, mango and banana.”
He urged the companies who are interested in agri-processing to come to AP, promising good potential, opportunities and all required facilities.
“We also have the Visakhapatnam Chennai Industrial Corridor and the Bangalore Chennai Industrial Corridor, which run through a large part of AP.”
“We also have a strong ecosystem for Defence and Aerospace, the petroleum hub and textiles. We are rich in mineral wealth and offer opportunities for hardware production.”
“We want to make our state a knowledge hub. So far, we have 8 institutions of excellence and over 15 universities in our state. Even B. R. Shetty will be setting up a medical university.”
“The capital city Amaravati, the building of the largest greenfield city in the country, will also offer you a large variety of opportunities. By 2050, there will be 3.5 million jobs created in Amaravati. There will be 1,600 km of cycle tracks in the city, making it more sustainable and green. The 33,000 acres of land for the city was contributed by farmers with trust in a unique experiment of land pooling.”
Dubai thrived in spite of heavy adverse conditions, and so will we. We all have conducive factors. Our climate, water availability, power supply, tourist attractions and a lot of heritage.”
“We will take the responsibility of handholding and accelerating your investment process in our state. I invite you all for the Partnership Summit held on 24, 25 and 26 February, to come and make AP your investment destination.”
He addressed the Indian businessmen and told them to help contribute in building their Janmabhoomi. “My dream is that every industrialist and business person in UAE should have at least one unit in Andhra Pradesh.”