The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR vows to put State in IT big league

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR vows to put State in IT big league

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 13. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has reiterated his determination to take Andhra Pradesh to the second spot in Information Technology from the present fifth position. He has said the Government is taking several measures to further boost IT and Infrastructure, like setting up a separate promotional agency, and a single window clearance of infrastructure projects.

He was inaugurating `Cyber Pearl,' the third phase block at the HI-TEC City here on Wednesday. While the HI-TEC City was established by L&T Infocity, a joint venture of Larsen &Toubro and the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), the Cyber Pearl is a joint venture of L&T Infocity and the Singapore-based Ascendas under the name L&T Infocity-Ascendas Ltd (LTIAL).

Exports up

Dr. Reddy said he had instructed the IT Department to make a "quick endeavour to move to the second place in three years from the current fifth place.'' "And who knows No.1 should not be far off from there," he said noting that IT exports from the State were $1.1 billion for 2003-2004. Admitting that IT also created employment, he said the present Government's concern was also to take IT to the rural areas. Already 1,300 kiosks had been established in the rural areas.

On infrastructure development, he said the Government's approach was "holistic development of town planning." The Government was planning development of 22 townships by involving leading international developers. The objective would be to make Andhra Pradesh a model State.

Wooing Singapore

Dr. Reddy also appealed to Lim Boon Heng, the Minister in Singapore Prime Minister's Office, to explore and strengthen relations between Singapore and Andhra Pradesh, and to use his good offices to explore the possibility of setting up a semi-conductor manufacturing facility in Hyderabad.

Mr. Lim spoke appreciatively of the Ascendas venture in Hyderabad and said such environment was intended to keep employees happy and also increase productivity levels. India, he said, was a land of vast opportunities with a healthy and growing economy.

Chong Siak Ching, the President of Ascendas, said Cyber Pearl was the first park in Hyderabad set up by Ascendas, but was their third such project in India. The others were the International Tech Park, Bangalore, and the Gurgaon Tech Park in Haryana. The fourth project was coming up in Chennai.

A. Ramakrishna , the Chairman of LTIAL, said L&T Infocity had fully developed the HI-TEC City project.

Naidu connection

Incidentally, Cyber Pearl would have been named `Cyber Oasis' but for the then Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu. While laying the foundation- stone for this phase in October 2002, Mr. Naidu had said he did not like the name and instead suggested that it be named "Cyber Pearl.''

According to the original schedule, the 2.7 lakh sq ft area should have been completed by February 2004.

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