As many as 14 IT companies from Singapore have evinced keen interest in shifting their units to Visakhapatnam after the State Government’s announcement to develop the city into IT capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Disclosing this during an interaction with IT entrepreneurs at IT SEZ, Rushikonda, MP and BJP State president K. Haribabu said a pro-active policy was required to promote Vizag into an IT hub.
During the interaction, several entrepreneurs including Miracle Software Systems CEO Prasad Lokam, Sankhya Technologies CEO Gopi Bulusu, Visakhapatnam IT Association president Deepak S. Madala, told the MP that besides aggressively showcasing Vizag as an ideal destination for investment in IT, there should be focus on creating social infrastructure, job-ready professionals, supply of quality power and higher bandwidth.
“We need people to vigorously market the city to outsiders instead of indulging in empty rhetoric. The brand image of the city will find takers only when the government goes out of the way to woo investors with a pro-active approach,” Mr. Prasad said. Mr Haribabu explained efforts to ensure 24x7 power supply and favoured optimum utilisation of solar power. Admitting that Vizag’s contribution to IT exports was peanuts compared to Hyderabad, he said he would bring pressure on the State Government to provide the required facilities to the IT investors.
The turnover from the city, which had remained Rs.1450 crore should be raised to Rs.20,000 crore in next five years. “More exports will ease the current account deficit problem,” he said and mooted autonomy to distribution companies to fix tariff based on their performance and power generation.
Rushikonda IT Park Association president and BJP floor leader in the Assembly P. Vishnu Kumar Raju and vice-president O. Naresh Kumar promised full support to make Vizag the IT capital of AP.
