VIJAYAWADA: Japan is very much interested in investing in Andhra Pradesh, which has strategic advantage of becoming future business nerve centre for the country on the east coast, Akio Isomata, Minister (Economic and Development), Embassy of Japan, said.
Participating at a conference on ‘Andhra Pradesh as Logistics Nerve Centre’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) AP Chapter here Wednesday, Isomata, who headed 50-member delegation of Japanese industrialists from 30 countries, said Japan has a sizable presence in Tamil Nadu and to expand further, it was logical for them to come to Andhra Pradesh.
“The state is strategically located and has an advantage of having 1,000 km coastline. It can be a production hub for us and Japanese investors are excited to work with Andhra Pradesh and invest here,” he said and praised the leadership of the state for bringing in measures for ease of doing business, as it was not the case earlier in different parts of the country, where they had invested.
Earlier in an interaction with the Japanese delegation, district collector Babu A explained that Andhra Pradesh is a right choice for investment, given its strategic location, vast coastline, skilled manpower, better road, rail and air connectivity. He explained that Industrialists of Krishna and Guntur districts have made major investments in Hyderabad. He said to promote industries, the government is denotifying some forest lands in cities like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.
The collector said in Krishna district, Machilipatnam port will be ready by 2017 and the journey from Japan to Machilipatnam by sea will be two hours less than to Chennai. He said the airport at Gannavaram will also be developed as an international airport in the coming years. Officials explained to the Japanese delegation that through land pooling 33,000 acres was acquired for construction of a new state capital.
Japanese investors were assured of all the needed permissions within 21 days and additional power supply for industrial purposes will be made available by 2019. They were also told about ‘Manpower Information System’ to be set up for providing data of the skilled manpower available in the state.
Masayoshi Tamura of Hitachi company sought clarification about air connectivity, to which the collector said steps are being taken for operating flights between Vijayawada and Delhi and in the coming days, even international flights will be operated from the airport.
Later, the delegation in batches was given an aerial view of the capital region.