410 MoUs for investments totalling ₹9.8 lakh crore to be signed at the summit: Sribharat

Visakhapatnam Member of Parliament M Sribharat has said 410 MoUs are likely to be signed at the CII Partnership Summit that would be held in Visakhapatnam on November 14 and 15, adding that these MoUs will bring investments worth ₹9.8 lakh crore to the State.

Addressing media persons along with BJP Visakhapatnam District president Parasu Rama Raju here on Monday (November 10), the MP said the summit is being held to boost investor confidence and to send a signal to potential investors across the world to look towards Andhra Pradesh as an investment destination.

Mr. Sribharat said all kinds of investments will be showcased in the CII Partnership Summit. “The NAREDCO is organizing a real estate summit to showcase the potential of owning a house in the city. Similarly, the tourism potential in the district will also be showcased to the investors visiting the summit,” he said.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and all the ministers, particularly Minister for IT Nara Lokesh, have been working hard to bring investments to the State. “The Chief Minister himself, Nara Lokesh, Industries Minister and officials have made foreign tours to attract investments and some of them are linkely to be committed at the summit and others at a latter stage,” he said.

The MP said focus was on grounding the projects for which an MoU is entered. “While entering into an MoU is one step, we have to see that the State Cabinet clears it, land is allotted and the project goes on stream. In the remaining three-and-half years of the present government, focus will be grounding the projects and ensure that they are operational,” he said.

“All arrangements are being made for the smooth conduct of the summit. I had instructed the GVMC Commissioner to take up works in a manner that the money invested on beautification of the city will be useful in future also,” the MP explained.

On the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) planning protests on the proposal to run medical colleges on PPP model when the summit is being held in the State, Mr. Sribharat said the YSRCP does not want investments to come to the State. “The policy of the YSRCP, during its regime, was not to empower SCs, STs, or the BCs but to keep them in poverty. The YSRCP did not bring industries that would have empowered the people but confined itself to doling out freebies,” he said.

“When a summit was conducted during the TDP government’s previous tenure, the YSRCP made a similar attempt. The government will deal with any attempt to disturb the summit firmly,” he said.

Mr. Parasu Rama Raju said the previous YSRCP government had sanctioned ₹60 crore for a medical college for which approximately ₹600 crore is needed. “A hospital does not end with construction of a slab. It needs a college, hostel, and other infrastructure too. They claim the medical college at Parvatipuram was completed but land was not sanctioned for it,” he said.

Responding to the recent arrest of a YSRCP leader in a drug case, Mr. Sribharat said people with criminal records or bad intentions are there in every party but the ratio of such people in YSRCP is more. “The YSRCP encouraged leaders who use vulgar language with nominated posts and those involved in grave offences in the Cabinet,” he alleged.