Cm's Tour of the Far East
    AP CM speaks at the Indo-Japan IT symposium,Tokyo


The Chief Minister Mr.N.Chandrababu Naidu on the second day of his Japan tour was the chief guest at the "India I.T Symposium" organised by the Japan Chamber of Commerce & Industry at the International Conference Hall, Tokyo. Delivering a key note address at the I.T Symposium, the Chief Minister outlined the new I.T policy and initiatives of the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Mr.Naidu said under the proposed I.T policy, all the new software companies would be exempted from Pollution Control Act, and would be allowed 25 per cent concession in power tariff. The software would be exempted from sales tax and software industry is exempted from zoning regulations. Mr.Naidu said the I.T units need only self certification under 7 Acts and there would be rebate on the cost of land at Rs.20,000 per job created. He said there would be a rebate of 70 per cent on stamp duty and relaxation of FAR to the extent of 50 per cent. The State Government is also providing an investment subsidy of 20 per cent with a limit of Rs.2 million and also there is special packages for mega projects. 

The Chief Minister hailed Japan's initiative to bridge the digital divide and cited the example of G8 Kyushu -Okinawa summit and said the Japanese Prime Minister announced a fund of $15 billion for addressing the digital divide. The Chief Minister appreciated Japan's leadership for focusing this important issue.

Speaking about the digital divide, the Chief Minister said that though the poor cannot afford computers, access not ownership is important and as far as the lack of connectivity is concerned the cable television and cellular phones could solve the problem to a great extent. Quoting the example of Pondichery fisherwomen and the DWCRA groups in Andhra Pradesh who use the computers and internet etc., Mr.Naidu said the low levels of literacy might not be a big problem. 

The Chief Minister said India is the 4th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity with GNP of $2 trillion (Japan 3rd with $3 trillion). He said India has one of the biggest consumer markets of 30 million and cost competitive technical workforce. India also has an advantage of independent judicial system and a free Press. Free repatriation of profits is also allowed in the country, he said.

Mr.Naidu said more than 185 of Fortune 500 companies outsourced their software requirements from India in 1999-2000 and India exported software to 95 countries. Mr.Naidu said India has over 4 million technical workers, over 1,832 educational institutions and polytechnics and more than 67,785 computer software professionals trained every year. He said out of 23 companies having (Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model (SEICMM) level 5 worldwide, 15 are located in India. 

India's software exports to Japan which was 140 million dollars is likely to be over 500 million dollars in 2002-2003. Mr.Naidu said for promoting I.T in India, Ministry of Information Technology was set up and a National Task Force on I.T and Software Development was also launched. He said the telecommunication sector was deregulated and 19 States have announced their I.T policies.

Speaking about Andhra Pradesh, he said the State with a population of 76.7 million with 2,75,000 sq.k.m area, will leverage I.T to attain a position of leadership and excellence in the information age, and transform itself into a knowledge society. He said the new strategy of the Andhra Pradesh Government is to increase the bandwidth to help Distance Education and provide a SMART government twinning with the private sector. He also explained about the projects like APSWAN, APSCAN and the State Information Infrastructure, the MoU signed on Ku Band transponder for Distance Learning, Telemedicine, E-governance and E-commerce.

The Chief Minister also explained in detail about the collaboration with MEASAT, about the number of professional institutions, Institutions of Excellence, Centre for SMART government etc. Mr.Naidu said after E-commerce and E-business, the next internet revolution will be E-government. He also explained about computerisation of A.P.Registration Department, Treasuries, Transport, Citizen Data and GIS for development planning. He said Andhra Pradesh would be first government to launch a unified portal for citizens to access government information and services which would become operational by 31st March 2001. The Chief Minister also gave a detailed account of the Hitec city (Phase-I and II), other infrastructure like international airport, roads, ports etc., available. 

Mr.Naidu listed out the investment opportunities available in the State like hardware units, software development centres, data centres, I.T infrastructure (parks, telecommunications), SMART government projects and I.T enabled services like call centres, medical transcription, data digitization, web content development, animation, back office operations, data processing etc. 

Mr.Naidu said 23 per cent of India's software professionals are from Andhra Pradesh and the State has high speed connectivity, moderate cost of living, political stability is an appropriate place for investment.

The Chief Minister's address was welcomed with applause and appreciated by one and all. Mr.Satyanarayana, Secretary, I.T&C gave a power point presentation on the I.T initiatives and I.T enabled services in the State. The conference was attended by Mr.Nobuhiko Kawamoto, Chairman, Japan India Business Cooperation Committee; Mr.Aftab Seth, Indian Ambassador to Japan; Mr.Hidenao Nakagawa, Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister for Information Technology; Mr.R.V.Deshpande, Karnataka Minister for Industries and I.T officials from Tamil Nadu. The conference was attended by more than 500 delegates. 

CM's Tour of the far East
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18th October:Naidu holds fruitful meet with Japanese Prime Minister

-October' 00