PNS|Vijayawada
Reiterating CM Jagan’s conviction to develop Andhra Pradesh, Minister for I&PR, Welfare, and Backward Classes, Chelluboina Venugopala Krishna on Monday said that Andhra Pradesh had done exceptionally well under the YSRCP government to attract investments and in fact would see a huge spike in investments in the coming days during the investor summit in Visakhapatnam.
Speaking to the media here, he said that by creating favourable conditions and industrial-friendly policies, the government of the day under CM Jagan Mohan Reddy had succeeded in converting Andhra Pradesh into an investment hub and a shining example of India’s development.
Stating facts, he elaborated, “AP is the fastest-growing State in the country with a GSDP of 11.43% in 2021-22, which is 2.73% higher than the national growth rate. Even in covid times, when the Centre’s growth rate was declining at -6.6%, AP recorded a positive growth rate of 0.08%. Another remarkable statistic is that Andhra Pradesh’s per capita income is 38.5% higher than the rest of the nation.’
He quoted the DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry) report that mentioned that by the end of July 2022, investments of 1,71,285 crores had come into India of which AP’s share of investments stood at Rs. 40,361 crores, the highest ever across the country.
Similarly, for industrial growth, he mentioned how the SIPB (Andhra Pradesh State Investment Promotion Board) approved investments of Rs 23,985 crore back in December 2022 (JSW Steels – Rs 8,800 crore, a Steel plant in Kadapa – Rs 6,330 crore, Adani Green Energy – Rs 6,330 crore and a hydro storage project by Shirdi Sai Electricals – Rs 8,855 crore.)
Expressing his satisfaction with the investment policies in the State, he said that Andhra Pradesh had ranked first in the country in Ease Of Doing Business (EoDB) for four consecutive years since the YSRCP government came to power. He added, “We are proud of what Andhra Pradesh has achieved despite what happened to us during bifurcation. We are a shining example of development despite the debts we are still paying off taken by the previous TDP regime.”
Elaborating on CM Jagan’s extended support to the MSME (medium and small medium enterprises) sector, the minister said, “Andhra Pradesh is the only State to give wide market preference to MSMEs in all government procurements. CM Jagan’s government has extended the Restart package to MSMEs to overcome the financial crisis that kicked off during the Covid-19 crisis. Under the ‘YSR Navodayam’ scheme, Rs 7976 crore worth of restructured loans were provided to 1.78 lakh MSME accounts.
