The new industrial policy, to be ratified by the state Cabinet on Friday, aims to achieve a manufacturing growth of 12-17 per cent and create direct and indirect employment to 500,000 persons a year.
Chief minister, K Rosaiah, who discussed the policy in detail with major industries minister, K Lakshminarayana, and top officials of the industries department, stated that special focus would be on micro, small and medium enterprises (Msme), food processing industry and reduction in regional imbalances.
The policy envisages promotion of industries along the natural-gas pipeline laid in the state, creation of quality infrastructure in industrial clusters, promotion of manufacturing investment regions along national highways and setting up of industrial estates in backward areas in public-private partnership mode.
According to an official press release, the policy intends to capitalise on the state's strength in the sectors like textiles, cement, pharma, food processing, steel and granite. Emphasis is also on alignment of policy incentives to ensure optimum utilisation of the Union government's schemes.
The chief minister said that importance would be given to building brand Andhra Pradesh as a benchmark for quality, streamlining the single-window clearance system, setting up of anchor industries to increase the ancillary base and revitalisation of Msme sector.
Besides identifying backward revenue divisions for providing differential rate of incentives to Msmes, the policy proposes to raise the investment limits for small-scale industries. For micro enterprises, the investment limit will be increased to Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for manufacturing and service outfits respectively.
Similarly, for small enterprises the investment limits will be increased to Rs 5 crore (manufacturing) and Rs 2 crore (service). In the case of medium enterprises, the investment limits will go up to Rs 10 crore (manufacturing) and Rs 5 crore (service).
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Service enterprises like material testing centres, laundries linked to textile units, weigh bridges, seed grading and various such activities will be provided investment subsidy in urban areas based on their employment generation capacity.
Rosaiah stated that the policy would strengthen and revitalise the district industrial centres (DIC) to ensure that they act as an agency for providing genuine support to Msmes.
Apart from providing information on policies and programmes, the DICs would be asked to provide project profiles and set up a facilitation cells for the revival of sick units and skill development.
For easy flow of credit to Msmes, the policy proposes certain measures to enhance the loan rendering capacity of banks through various schemes and by reduction in interest rates. Initiatives have been proposed for providing marketing assistance for brand building, quality certification and creating platforms for domestic and international markets.