Creating investment climate in agrarian Andhra Pradesh
One of the oft-repeated criticisms against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh is that it is disinterested in developing the state as an industrial and tech hub. It is a narrative that the opposition TDP, BJP and others have been taking forward, but if we separate the wheat from the chaff, as is usually the case, the truth is somewhere in between. It is a fact that the Jagan government has invested heavily in welfare schemes, health and education sectors. Nonetheless, it is also true that the state has been consistently ranked number 1 in ease of doing business and recorded an appreciable growth rate barring the Covid bump.
On the flip side, the government hadn’t been as aggressive in reaching out to potential investors in contrast to the earlier regime of N Chandrababu Naidu, who was adept at marketing and held several CII Partnership Summits. For various reasons, not least his insistence on Amaravati as capital, the former chief minister couldn’t repeat his Hyderabad success story in Andhra. However, to give credit where it is due, he did try.
Andhra Pradesh, after the creation of Telangana, has primarily been reduced to an agrarian economy with agriculture and allied activities, MSMEs and the self-employed driving its growth. The Jagan government has rightly focused on these sectors first, which proved especially fruitful in coping with the Covid-induced economic downturn. It is now making an aggressive pitch to project Andhra as an ideal investment destination. Even if a bit belated, this is the right time to move as the economy is picking up.
Andhra Pradesh, with its 974-km long coastline, six ports, skilled talent pool, three industrial corridors and a vast land bank, is better placed to take a giant leap forward. It is good that the Jagan government is organising its first Global Investors’ Summit in Vizag on March 3 and 4 and is leaving no stone unturned to showcase the state’s potential, particularly that of the Steel City, to the who is who in the business world. Visakhapatnam, which the government wants to be the executive capital, is the one major city in Andhra that can grow by leaps and bounds. However, as one swallow cannot make a summer, the government must build on the existing ecosystem for manufacturing industries, tech companies and others. If it does, the state will see Hyderabad not as a lost jewel but as a competitor.