Hyderabad to be projected as knowledge hub at CII Summit

The main focus of the three-day Partnership Summit-2004 starting here from January 7 would be the core issues relating to economic development of state and nation, and also the economy world over, according to Kotagiri Vidydher Rao, the minister for major industries. Signing MoUs is an an ongoing process in the state and require no special melas, he observed.

"The main issue here is we would like to project AP as the Knowledge State and Hyderabad as Knowledge Hub, where international community meets to discuss several international issues concerning the economy of country and the world, and the impact of various factors on industrial growth" he said in an interview to Business Standard .

"AP is already the focus of nation and the world as a number of major multinational corporations and national investors are registering themselves round the year for investing in Andhra Pradesh. We are holding several national and international seminars on various sectors like tourism, bio-technology and information technology. So the question of concentration in one activity like signing MoUs in an event like partnership summit does not arise," the minister said.

Quoting the statistics of CMIE and Projects Today, the minister said that they pointed out that the state had already transformed from an agrarian state into an industrial state.

"In the implementation of projects, better known as striking rate, AP is ranking first among all other states with 68 per cent on that front. AP is leading in the manufacturing sector. Industrial sickness is only 7 per cent in AP where as it is even higher in the states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu," Vidyadher Rao said, arguing that the grounding of MoUs and LoIs entered into at the last two summits were not bad either.

"None can expect each and every MoU entered into will materialise," was his reply when asked on the poor conversion rate.

"A premier organisation like CII choosing Hyderabad and the state as the right destiny for holding its annual flagship event third time in a span of just four years will itself speaks volumes," he added.

"2004 is going to be a very good year for AP to attract major investments in both industry and tourism sectors," he added.