Visakhapatnam: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday declared the Visakhapatnam edition of the CII Partnership Summit is a ‘super hit’, announcing that the two-day event secured Rs 13.25 lakh crore in investment commitments through 613 MoUs. More than 4,975 industry leaders, including 640 international delegates, participated in the summit. The Chief Minister has positioned the summit as a signal of renewed investor confidence in the state’s governance and economic direction. Speaking at the closing media briefing on Saturday, Naidu highlighted that the summit went beyond the objective of attracting capital flows.

Organised in a hybrid format, the summit featured 41 business sessions, 91 speakers, and 16 country-specific engagement meetings, while the Chief Minister himself held 24 bilateral discussions with global industrial groups.

The government also invited 450 students to the sessions to expose them to entrepreneurship and emerging technologies, supported by the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub, which Naidu described as a key platform for developing new founders. The summit, which began on Friday, concluded on Saturday.

The Chief Minister said Andhra Pradesh has attracted more than Rs 20 lakh crore of investments in the past 17 months, attributing this to governance reforms, expedited approvals, and a policy environment aimed at “speed of doing business”. He noted that every department has secured commitments during the summit, crediting ministers and senior officials for sector-specific engagement.

Naidu announced that MSME parks will be established in all 175 Assembly constituencies, supported by 95 per cent state-backed bank guarantees to reduce financing friction for new enterprises. He said common infrastructure, logistics support, and marketing assistance would form part of a wider micro-industrialisation programme. Citing the example of Sri City - now home to 240 units from 31 countries -he said Andhra Pradesh intends to expand global industrial participation to at least 50 countries over the medium term.

The Chief Minister said the government will begin offering Escrow arrangements and sovereign guarantees for large investors, signalling deeper risk-mitigation mechanisms to accelerate project execution. Under the State’s “Super Six” programme, the government had originally targeted employment for 20 lakh youth, but new investment commitments, he said, have expanded the potential to 24 lakh jobs.

He stressed that the investment proposals secured at the summit were “serious commitments”, asserting that all projects would be grounded within three years. A group of ministers, he said, will monitor each MoU until implementation is complete. Preparatory work on required infrastructure—land, utilities, and connectivity - is already underway.

Naidu also criticised the previous administration’s handling of the renewable-energy sector, alleging that policy instability and political targeting led to Rs 9,000 crore being paid to generators without utilising the electricity produced. This, he said, had “damaged investor confidence”, which the current government is now rebuilding.

The Chief Minister highlighted progress on several marquee investors. He said Minister Nara Lokesh’s engagement with Google had revived interest in setting up operations in Andhra Pradesh.