- J Krishna Kishore, CEO, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB)
Andhra Pradesh has been consistently clocking double digit growth for three years. The state has achieved a growth rate of 11.39 per cent, with agriculture, industry and the service sectors registering a growth above the national average. 'The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh believes that for the country to grow at double-digits, power states like ours should grow consistently at 15 per cent. The Chief Minister's vision is to be among the top three states in India by 2022 and a developed state by 2029,' says J Krishna Kishore, CEO, APEDB and Ex-Officio Secretary to Government, GAD. He shares more on the state's growth and plans...

What is APEDB's plan for economic growth?
The APEDB, formed under the Chairmanship of N Chandrababu Naidu, is responsible for sustainable growth through trade, investments, collaborations and partnerships, in addition to strategic planning, initiating a pragmatic and predictable policy regime, and identifying new growth areas to support Andhra Pradesh's economy.

APEDB contributes to Andhra Pradesh's growth rate through a four-pronged approach:

• Laying the base for industrialisation through industrial corridors, clusters and port-led development.
• Promoting the state as a investment destination and attracting FDI.
• Aligning local value chains to global chains.
• Pro-industrialisation policies including a predictable and pragmatic policy regime.

How have you ensured ease of doing business in the state?

• EDB works across departments and ensures that the stakeholders are involved with relevant departments since inception.

• It acts as a private advisor to investors, consulting and advising them on clusters, policies, incentives, subsidies, land parcels and assisting them with the approval process.

• APEDB is a single point of contact for foreign investments and has constituted a Japan, China, Korea, Europe, US and UAE desk, where experts from the country desk interact with investors from the respective countries. 

• This eases doing business for international investors. APEDB has a sector-focussed approach, where the sector experts deal with investors from the respective sectors for counsel, advice and guidance.

• APEDB regularly interacts with investors, both in the state and country, to seek guidance and advice from investors on ease of doing business. This acts as a feedback mechanism.

APEDB signed a MoU with Alibaba Cloud India for leveraging solutions in various sectors...
The partnership with the Alibaba Group envisages leveraging Alibaba's Cloud and Smart City technologies in driving the state's digital transformation and ease of deploying advanced ICT technologies across smart farming, integrated traffic management, SMEs and skill development programmes.
As part of the state's flagship Real Time Governance, the 'AliCloud's ET City Brain Solution' seeks to harness its AI and machine learning capabilities to augment the traffic management and surveillance systems through optimising work process for traffic and event management, and driving actionable insights on data from District Command Control Centres and Red Light Violation and Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras.

What is the growth potential you see for the state in the future?
All the districts have crossed double-digit growth, except Srikakulam, which achieved 9.25 per cent. Krishna, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari contributed 52.90 per cent to the GSDP. In future, the state will prioritise growth avenues and identify new growth areas, so each district could grow at an average of 15 per cent, leading to the state' s overall growth.