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Andhra Pradesh
Naidu unveils steps to woo MNCs
By Our Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD, FEB. 10. An independent agency will be established soon by the Government to facilitate investments by multinational companies in the State, the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, said here today.
Headed by the Chief Minister's Special Secretary, Ranadeep Sudan, the agency will provide single-window clearance for foreign investments, especially from the United States where companies are seeking to offload functions like accounting, payrolls and human resources to ease their tremendous cost pressure.
Addressing a news conference on return from his three- nation tour of the US, Ireland and the UAE, Mr. Naidu said this trend of `business processing outsourcing' (BPO) provided an ideal opportunity for India given its vast pool of technically qualified people and cost-effectiveness. M/s McKinsey & Co, consultant, would be a partner in this venture and judged on the basis of its success rate (in getting investments).
The Chief Minister's ten-day-long tour saw him interacting with several business and political leaders such as the former US President, Bill Clinton, and the Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates, at the World Economic Forum in New York and other places. He also visited `Ground Zero' where terrorists crashed planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center killing thousands of people.
The main focus of Mr. Naidu's visit, however, was on attracting investment and technology in the field of biotech, encouraging MNCs to go in for BPO in the State and set up offices in the proposed financial district in Hyderabad and attending roadshows at Dubai and New York to promote Special Economic Zones.
The Chief Minister said there was scope for providing employment to 3,00,000 people in AP provided the right climate for BPO investments, restricted at present only to General Electric and HSBC, was created. The Government would invite the Delhi-based DLF Co. to develop real estate for the purpose not only in Hyderabad but also in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada-Guntur, Warangal and Tirupati.
Giving details of investments to the tune of Rs. 500 crores his visit had yielded in the biotech field, Mr. Naidu said Proxymare would invest Rs. 450 crores in the Biotech Park in Hyderabad, Genomics USA Rs. 20 crores in partnership with APIDC Venture Capital while Monsanto would set up a Rs. 5-crore R & D Centre in ICICI Knowledge Park.
Mr. Naidu said he would take up with the Centre the issue of further cutting down the cost of communication, an issue he had been pressing since the last six years, and to reduce taxes as an incentive for investments in hardware, a field now dominated by Japan and China.
In response to a question, Mr. Naidu said that he would convene an all-party meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue of holding talks with the naxalites. On the `wrong signal' to investors following the beating up of an industrialist at Kothur in Nalgonda district, he said he would analyse the matter though some action had already been initiated against policemen.
Mr. Naidu said M/s Ernst & Young would serve as consultants to the Government in the biotechnology field and Reed & Smith on patenting and intellectual property rights (IPR) issues.
Seeking to dispel concerns expressed to him by prospective investors over patenting and IPR issues, he said he would ask the Centre to set up a patent office in Hyderabad.
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