Minister for MSME Kondapalli Srinivas interacting with The Hindu in Vijayawada on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: K.V.S. GIRI

Andhra Pradesh had lost the opportunity of entrepreneurship post bifurcation as most of the sector-specific Industrial Parks (IPs) built in the unified State were concentrated in and around Hyderabad, and a vast majority of the entrepreneurs, too, stayed back.

Now, the Government of Andhra Pradesh is striving to attract those entrepreneurs to invest in the State by offering them tailor-made incentives and extending the required support.

“The efforts are paying off as quite a good number of companies, the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), are coming forward to set up their units in the State, for which the government is extending all assistance,” says Andhra Pradesh Minister for MSMEs Kondapalli Srinivas.

In an exclusive interaction with The Hindu  here on Thursday, Mr. Srinivas said the State was endowed with rich natural resources and human capital needed for industries to thrive, but right now there was not much motivation for various reasons, mainly due to the impact of bifurcation. The State had to restart everything because of bifurcation, and it obviously hit the MSME sector hard.

“Nevertheless, the government has set an ambitious target to develop an Industrial Park (IP) and a flatted factory in each one of the 175 Assembly constituencies in a phased manner, for which three models have been put forth,” he said.

Under the first one, private lands would be developed by private parties, who would have the liberty to sell, or lease the plots. The government would incentivise the development cost. The government lands would be developed by private partners in the second model and the third one would have a mix of government and private lands for development by private partners.

Already, 11 IPs were inaugurated, tenders were being called for 39 parks and 50 parks were in the planning stage. The target was to complete all the 175 IPs in two years, said Mr. Srinivas, while sounding confident that it would be achieved.

Ratan Tata Innovation Hubs

The Minister observed that the MSMEs were constrained by the lack of R&D facilities, and to solve this problem, the government was in the process of developing the Ratan Tata Innovation Hubs in a hub-and-spoke model.

A support mechanism was being built for the MSMEs to enable them to overcome the challenges such as difficulties faced in raising working capital and accessing the national and global markets.

The State government was helping them (MSMEs) to make the most of the funding provided by the Government of India’s Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises, while doing what it could within its limitations to give them a fillip, he observed.

Mr. Srinivas said there was a sizable number of individuals who went abroad as employees and settled there as entrepreneurs, and many entrepreneurs who had their roots in A.P. have thriving businesses in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Odisha.

The government was encouraging them to consider investing in their home State, Mr. Srinivas said, noting that the biggest leveraging factor was the brand image created by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his untiring efforts to take the State forward.