Japanese firms evince interest

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 19. On the second day of his mission to market Andhra Pradesh in South Asia, the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, utilised the India IT symposium in Tokyo on Thursday to focus on the pre-eminence of the State in the areas of IT, high-speed connectivity and abundant talent of software professionals.

Mr. Naidu, who made a keynote presentation on the IT policy and related initiatives, told his Japanese audience that with a population of 76.7 millions and geographical spread of 2.75,000 sq km, Andhra Pradesh would leverage IT to attain a position of leadership and excellence in the information age and transform into a knowledge society.

It sought to increase the bandwidth to help promote distance education and provide a SMART governance to the people. The internet revolution would focus on e-governance after heralding e-business and e-commerce, a press release from the CMO quoted Mr. Naidu as saying.

Giving an update on the computerisation drive, he said Andhra Pradesh was poised to become the first Government to launch a unified portal for citizens to access information and services by the end of March. Other plus points of the State were also highlighted: political stability, nearly a fourth of India's software pros, moderate cost of living and Hyderabad a clean and green city.

He outlined the concessions given under the IT policy such as new software firms exempted from Pollution Control Act, 25 per cent rebate in power tariff, sales tax exemption on software and zoning regulations exemption for the software industry. Rebates also covered cost of land, stamp duty, relaxation of floor area regulation and investment subsidy. On the digital divide, Mr. Naidu said the poor need not own computers, and it would suffice if they had access to it, as this was more important. Cable television and cell phone could help overcome the constraints of connectivity. He felt low literacy levels should not pose a big problem since fisherwomen of Pondicherry and DWCRA groups in Andhra Pradesh effectively used computers and the internet. Over 500 attended the symposium.

The Chief Minister and his team visited the Toshiba Electronic Corporation. Responding to his request that Toshiba set up more projects in the State, Mr. Taizo Nishimoro, Chairman of Toshibha, said it would expand its business in a big way in Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu met Mr. Kosaburo Morinaka, Executive Managing Director, and other senior executives of Sumitomo Corporation, who expressed willingness to cooperate with Andhra in the area of power sector. Mr. Morinaka said he would visit Hyderabad shortly.

Mr. Naidu also held discussions with leaders representing trade and industry till late on Wednesday and was interviewed by the Japanese media.

The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, delivering the keynote address at the presentation on IT policy in Tokyo on Thursday. The Finance Minister, Mr. Y. Ramakrushnudu, and the Industries Minister, Mr. K. Vidyadhara Rao, are seen.

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