Andhra Pradesh mulling separate industrial city for Japanese investors

HYDERABAD: After promising to set up an exclusive desk to accord clearances to Japanese investors, the Andhra Pradesh government is now proposing to set up an exclusive industrial city for Japanese investors.

The AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday assured a team of officials from Japanese International Cooperation Agency ( JICA) that the state government will support the Japanese investors with separate industrial city.

In this context, the chief minister said a joint task force, constituting the state government and Japanese officials, to work out the collaboration. Further, the AP government will soon finalise a follow-up visit of Naidu to Japan.

JICA, which plans to complete master plan of Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor by March 2015 and bridge critical gaps in financing, has assured facilitating accelerated cooperation with ASEAN.

Naidu has urged the JICA officials to consider assisting the state government in preparing detailed master plan for capital beyond core capital region and also support the Centre’s Sagaramala project from Vizag to Kakinada to develop the state into a logistics hub.

The Japanese officials expressed interest in supporting the state in development of smart cities and also extending technology transfer to MSMEs.