HYDERABAD: After convincing China’s steel major, Ansteel Engineering Technology Corporation Limited to invest in the state during his tour of the Communist nation last month, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday made a similar appeal to Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), one of the four largest steel companies in Russia.
Naidu, who held a series of meetings with Russian officials and industrialists on Tuesday, met director of electrical steel division of NLMK Valery Shevelev, who informed him that the company is looking for possibilities of expansion in India and is keen to invest $1 billion. NLMK, primarily produces flat steel products, semi-finished steel products and electrical steels.
With Naidu getting a positive response from the company, he urged the company director to visit AP and have a first hand information about the facilities and natural resources available in the state to set up steel industry, According to a press release issued by the CMO. The Chief Minister even directed the State Economic Development Board officials to coordinate with the officials of NLMK to materialise the proposal.
In a slew of bilateral meeting held at Yekaterinburg, Naidu met Governor of Sverdlovsk Evgency Kuivashev, and expressed his keenness to set up a Russian-Indian industrial cluster in AP.
The governor assured Naidu that he would be sending a delegation to AP to study the proposed project. Later, during interaction with member of the Management Board First Vice-President from Gazprombank Yan V Tsenter, Naidu urged the company to come and explore opportunities in AP. Gazprombank group works in fields of finance, petrochemicals, and heavy machinery industries and media business.
“This is the perfect time for you to come and invest in AP. We are a very investor-friendly State,” the Chief Minister told the company representatives.
Earlier in the day, Naidu held a meeting with Bocharo Oleg, Head of the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of the city of Moscow, during which Bocharo Oleg highlighted his department’s technological innovation that will be useful in building the capital city Amaravati.
“We have a clear mandate from the Moscow government to venture into building smart cities around the world and 25 billion Euros have been allotted for this,” Bocharo told Naidu.
Noting that ‘Startup Culture’ is picking up in Moscow, Bocharo invited the Chief Minister to attend the meeting of all technoparks from all over the world at Moscow in September.