AP pin hopes on private investors - TeluguPeople.com News

HYDERABAD: With the Centre not ready to come to the rescue of cash-starved Andhra Pradesh at this juncture, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is understood to be pinning his hopes on private investments to bring the ailing economy of the State back on the track.

Strengthening this argument, Naidu, according to sources, told his Cabinet colleagues to prepare policies in their departments to give impetus to the flow of private investments to the State to get over the financial crisis the State is facing now.

Naidu, who had an informal interaction with some ministers and his party MLAs at Vijayawada on the occasion of the Republic Day, reportedly told them that the possibility of the Centre according special category status to AP is remote as several other States are coming in the way of giving special status to the reorganised State.

'In fact, the Centre is now facing a grave financial situation. Hence, it may take some more time for the State to get special status,' Naidu reportedly said in the meeting.

According to the sources, during the meeting the Chief Minister told his colleagues that in a fortnight's time, the Centre might announce a special package for the State giving tax concessions along with some financial aid to backward districts in the State.

As the Centre is making proposals to give special package for AP instead of special status, Naidu asked ministers to formulate policies in a such a way that the reorganised State will get more investments from private players.

Naidu reportedly asked his Cabinet colleagues to prepare department-wise wish lists to get more projects from the Centre instead of waiting for the special status, so that the State government can persuade the Centre to extend financial aid to the State for these projects in lieu of special category status.

As the Union government had reportedly not responded positively for the State's request to bail it out of the economic crisis, created following the bifurcation of undivided AP, the Chief Minister is understood to be of the view that the State government should consider other options to fill its coffers.

ADB Plan for Industrial Corridor

At a time when the AP Chief Minister Naidu asked his ministerial colleagues to concentrate on attracting private investments to the cash-starved State, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has begun the preparation of 'Regional Perspective Plan' for the proposed Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor, for which the bank wants to give funds.

In the perspective plan, the ADB formulated four economic nodes to be constructed as part of the corridor in AP. They are: Visakhapatnam Node, Kakinada Node, Machilipatnam Node and Tirupati- Kalahasti Node.

The bank wants to make Visakhapatnam node a hub of pharma, metallurgy, chemical, petrochemical and Food Processing industries. It wants Kakinada node to be centre for metallurgy, chemical and petrochemicals and food processing industries.

The bank is of the view that Machilipatnam should also become another hub for the same industries. However, it wants to make the Tirupati- Kalahasti node a centre for electrical equipment, electronic devices, non-metallic minerals and food processing industries.

Cabinet Meet on February 2

The next meeting of the AP Cabinet scheduled to take place on Tuesday was postponed to February 2.