Visakhapatnam: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu highlighted that Andhra Pradesh is able to attract investments to a tune of 20 billion US dollars in the past 18 months, providing employment opportunities to 20 lakh youth as promised.

Delivering keynote address at the inaugural session of the ‘30th CII Partnership Summit 2025’ held at Andhra University Grounds in Visakhapatnam on Friday, the Chief Minister expressed confidence that the government will be able to attract 500 billion US dollars in just three years to provide employment opportunity to 50 lakh youth.

As Andhra Pradesh is gifted with natural resources and a long coastline, they serve as a gateway for investments in several sectors, the CM mentioned. In addition to the existing incentives for investors, the Chief Minister also assured to open escrow accounts, provide sovereign guarantee to those who come forward to setting up industries in the state.

Expressing happiness over participation of over 2,500 trade delegates across the globe, including 522 representing 72 countries, the Chief Minister said that Visakhapatnam is a beautiful and safest city and is set to emerge as a destination for IT and investments. Inviting trade delegates to the CII partnership summit next year, the CM said he is ready to host it at Visakhapatnam itself. He said that as per the suggestion of Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal he is ready to allot land facing sea to develop a world class ITPO convention centre in Visakhapatnam.

Praising Vice President of India CP Radhakrishnan, who participated as chief guest of the inaugural session, the Chief Minister described him as a shining example of hard work and democratic values. Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the right person at the right place, the Chief Minister reiterated that the Bihar election results itself is an indication that people are with Modi and the NDA is certain to win 200 seats. He said India is the best place for investments with the advantage of demographic dividend and the country is going to emerge as number one in economy in the world by 2047 which is unstoppable.

Coming to Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister said that Andhra Pradesh has natural advantages with the longest coastline and stands as a gateway of the East Coast for trade development. He said that the state government adopted speed of doing business and following 10 principles to attract investments and encourage industrialists. Addressing the delegates, he said efforts are on to set up drone, electronics, aerospace, space, semi-conducts, defence corridors in the state. He said a quantum valley will be developed in Amaravati and quantum computers will be produced in Andhra Pradesh in two years. He said that the state government has been giving top priority to green energy and a target was set to produce 160-GW of green energy out of a 500-GW target. He said priority is given for developing green energy in a big way as the proposed data centre in Visakhapatnam itself needs 6-GW of power. He appealed to a slew of industry giants to come and join hands with Andhra Pradesh to build the economy. He said abundant opportunities are available in Andhra Pradesh to invest in the deep tech, tourism and logistics and health sectors.

Earlier CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee welcomed the gathering. Vice-President of India CP Radhakrishnan, Governor Sayed Abdul Nazeer, Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, K Rammohan Naidu, Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, Bhupatiraju Srinivasa Varma, Ministers Nara Lokesh, Nadendla Manohar and TG Bharath addressed the sessions.

Participating in the summit, Rajiv Memani, president CII, Karan Adani, managing director of Adani Ports, GM Rao, Chairman GMR group, Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman and MD Bajaj Fin Serv Ltd, Shobana Kamineni, promoter director Apollo Hospitals, Suchitra K Ella, vice president CII, Sudarshan Venu, Chairman and MD, TVS Motors and Yusuf Ali, Chairman and MD of Lulu Group addressed the session.