Bengaluru: Stepping out of his state for the first time on a business mission after the bifurcation of the state, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu participated in his first ever road show in Bengaluru and tried to hardsell his state.
Mr Naidu, who was credited for building Cyberabad in early 2000, reiterated that he would like to build “Brand AP” again and create “Suvarna Andhra Pradesh”.
“This is our first road show after the new state was formed. Please come to my state and invest. I promise you 24x7 water and power supply. Compared to Chennai and Bengaluru, land prices are comparatively low. You know my track record and how I built Hyderabad. Once again, I promise you, I will build “Brand Andhra Pradesh”.”
This was the message Mr Naidu sent out throughout the day whenever and wherever he met industrialists and businessmen.
He went to several industry houses and wound up the day with an interaction with businessmen and industrialists at a Confederation of Indian Industry meeting.
True to his spirit, Mr Naidu, whose state has no big industry now, is dreaming big. He reminisced how he and S.M. Krishna had competed with each other when he was the CM of undivided AP between 1999 and 2004 and Mr Krishna was the chief minister of Karnataka for the same period.
“We are ready for healthy competition with other states. There is nothing wrong if we have a healthy competition among ourselves.” Mr Naidu said.
With this, Mr Naidu has certainly sent a warning signal to his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah, who is considered as an anti-industry leader among the business community.
Mr Naidu had recently snatched a big industry project of Hero Motor Corp from Karnataka. Speaking about healthy competition, Mr Naidu dropped hints that he would attract more investments otherwise intended for Karnataka.
Unlike his focus on an urban-centric administration in 2000, Mr Naidu did not hesitate to explain to industry captains his vision on developing rural AP.
He discounted the decade between 2004-2014 as bad for the country and his state, and said, “Now, we have a stable government at the Centre and in AP. I would like to convert AP into the eastern gateway of the country.”
