AP aims at over 40 pc growth in IT exports: CM

Hyderabad, Mar 20: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today said his government had provided a congenial atmosphere for the growth of Industry, including Information Technology, by curbing extremism and providing the much-needed logistics support.

Inaugurating the Hyderabad IT Summit 2008, which brought together major IT companies from over 40 countries, the Chief Minister asserted that by focusing on all sectors of the economy, including industry and agriculture, the state will achieve 10.4 per cent growth this year as against 8.7 per cent growth expected in the country as a whole.

Dr Reddy assured the captains of industry that the infrastructure bottlenecks will be overcome in the next two to three years with the completion of the Metro Rail, outer ring road and other expressways in Hyderabad, one of the most preferred destinations of leading IT companies.

Referring to a recent report of the Reserve Bank of India, the Chief Minister said ''Andhra Pradesh is one of the best destinations for setting up an IT enterprise.'' The state with its proactive policies has been consistently posting about 45 per cent growth in the sector in the last four years as against 25 to 30 per cent growth elsewhere in the country, he observed.

Promising air connectivity to all tier-II and III cities and towns in the state, the Chief Minister wanted the industry to move out to these areas.

''We firmly believe the country's strength lies in its human resources. If only we develop the human resources, no force on earth can beat us,'' Dr Reddy said and referred to the steps taken by his government for human resources development by setting up Jawahar Knowledge Centres (JKC) to provide ''last mile connectivity'' between the students and the industry.

Thanks to the JKC initiative, leading multinational companies were reaching out even to engineering colleges in remote areas of the state for campus recruitments, he said.

State Information Technology Minister R Damodar Reddy said the state government will tap the vast potential in the animation and gaming sector by floating a company for the purpose.

The state had achieved IT exports of Rs 18,582 crore, registering a growth of 48.4 per cent last year. As many as 1.15 lakh jobs had been generated in the last three years alone, he added.

UNI