‘Andhra aims for 10% share in India’s overall exports’

Amaravati/New Delhi, March 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday said that the state is aiming for a 10 per cent share in the overall India's exports basket by 2030.

Participating virtually in the Maritime India Summit 2021, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Reddy said that currently Andhra Pradesh has an export share of 4 per cent.

Delving on India's overall trade, the Chief Minister said that 95 per cent of the trade by volume and 70 per cent by value is through maritime transport.

"Indian ports handled approximately 1.2 billion metric tonnes of cargo traffic in the year 2019 - 2020 and much required policy reforms like 100 per cent FDI, Make-in-India, Sagar Mala and Bharat Mala have been introduced to ensure exponential growth in this sector," he said.

Reddy added that Maritime India Vision 2030 document will stand as a testament to the government's commitment.

"I believe that the importance of 'Blue Economy' in a nation's growth story extends much beyond the maritime trade and the Export - Import statistics," he said.

The Chief Minister said that the true value of "Blue Economy" is unlocked only when all the allied sectors dependent on the ocean such as aquaculture, maritime and coastal tourism, chemical and bio-technological exploration, ship building and other port-led industries also mature enough to provide sustainable employment and growth opportunities.

Reddy termed the draft of the first ever National Fishing Policy released in September 2020 as an example of several such steps taken in that direction.

He told Modi that drawing inspiration from him, Andhra has taken a lot of transformative steps to leverage it coastline of 974 km, which is the second largest in India.

"Today, I am proud to say that Andhra Pradesh is on the top spot in the country in Ease of Doing Business rankings 2020 released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry and one of the factors that contributed to this achievement is the state government's consistent efforts in developing port infrastructure, support ecosystem and encouraging port-led industrialization," the Chief Minister said.

He added the state has one major port in Visakhapatnam, five functional ports and 10 other notified state ports with world class facilities which can handle more than 170 million tonnes of cargo per annum, second to Gujarat.

According to Reddy, several industrial nodes came up in the state, including the state taking up the development of three greenfield ports at Ramayapatnam, Machilipatnam and Bhavanapadu on an innovative model that mitigates all risks associated with green field port development.

He said these ports are deep-drafted ports all set to be operational by 2023, creating an additional capacity of at least 100 million tonnes of cargo per annum.

"In order to ensure that the ports operate at their fullest capacities, the state government has consciously taken steps to attract large investments in the sectors ranging from manufacturing, petrochemicals, food processing, pharmaceuticals which are port-dependent," he added.

Reddy said the state government has also undertaken the development of eight fishing harbours, establishment of testing labs and cold chain facilities to better provide ecosystem for aquaculture to increase the share of aqua-related cargo from the ports.

"I would also like to extend my invitation to the representatives from various companies from India and abroad attending this summit through the Government of India to invest in AP and I assure you the best environment for your operations and the fullest support in making your endeavor a successful one," he added.

Source: IANS