Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today met International Department Central Committee of Communist Party of China (IDCPC) minister Wang Jairui in Beijing today.
During the meeting, Jairui wished the AP delegation and shared his recent experiences of India. He said Delhi looked much cleaner than during his earlier visit. “Looks the clean India campaign is working. India needs infrastructure and our (Chinese) companies are good at it,” he said, adding “I’ve learnt that you are building a new State. I wish we develop a strong business and cultural relationship between the two countries.”
The AP Chief Minister on his third day of China visit met top executives of China Harbour Engineering Company. Mo Wenhe, chairman of the company said their core business involves constructions of ports and airports. The company also has expertise in roads, railways and civil engineering. Our roads business is worth $60 billion,” Wenhe explained. He said the company is keen on replicating their China experience in AP in infrastructure development. “We are aware of AP’s advantages of long coastline, natural and mineral resources,” he added.
Lauding China’s rapid growth in the last 40 years, the Chief Minister has asked the company to explore creation of a Chinese industrial park which will have all Chinese firms under one roof. Explaining that Amaravathi is the new capital, the Chief Minister invited them to set up shop in the capital area. Later, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Soma Enterprises and China Habour Engineering Company.
In a meeting with state-owned China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), Chandrababu Naidu asked the company to work with Andhra Pradesh in construction of dams and linking of rivers. China Gezhouba Group Corporation has expertise in water conservancy, wind power, electromechanical installation, power transmission and transformation, highways, railways, bridges, municipal works, airports, ports, waterways, design, construction of industrial, civilian buildings and so on.
The Chief Minister suggested that the company could work closely with AP irrigation department in helping the State divert flood water draining into the sea to drought-hit areas of the State. The CGGC informed the Chief Minister that they could also look into funding and equity models for carrying out projects in Andhra Pradesh. The company executives informed the Chief Minister that they would stay in touch with the government through their India office in New Delhi.
Chandrababu Naidu also had a meeting with a Guizhou delegation of Silk-road International Investment Corporation. The $40-billion Silk Road Fund is designed to finance China-proposed “Belt and Road”. “Belt and Road” refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) initiatives proposed by China in 2013 for improved cooperation with countries in a vast part of Asia, Europe and Africa.
Guizhou is a province of the People’s Republic of China, located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.
The Guizhou delegation consisted of companies such as: Special Steel Company Ltd, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Electric Power Construction Company, Keda Clean Energy, Xiamen Huate Group Corproation, China Transmission, Innogreen, Shougang Guiyang Special Steel Co, Power Construction Corporation of China. The leader of the delegation said they want to contribute to the development of Andhra Pradesh. “We have already made our representation to the Central government to go to AP and invest there. We also invite AP companies to set up shop in our province,” he added.
Guizhou, which depends on big data and IT services, has the potential to become China’s IT services centre. “We look forward to combine our hardware advantages with India’s software strength,” the Guizhou province leader said. Since AP has a good human resource based in software, the leader added that Guizhou province wants to become a sister province to AP in software development. “We are also interested in wind power projects in AP,” the leader said.
Naidu welcomed the delegation to visit AP and set up an industrial park. “You can finalize the deal and announce it when our Prime Minister visits China next month,” the Chief Minister told the delegation. They replied in the affirmative. (NSS)
