Hyderabad: Having shared the top slot with Andhra Pradesh in ease of doing business and not resting on laurels, Telangana is now looking to reduce the cost of doing business, State IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao said today.
Addressing a press conference, Rao said that the government has made several changes in labour laws, and other relevant procedures, to make the state an “investor friendly” destination.
“Ease of doing business is not the only solution. Cost of doing business is also important. Now, the task for Telangana government will be to bring down the cost of doing business and to ensure that it is minimised and also to ensure the quality of doing business improves drastically,” he said.
“Officials and ministers may come and go. But there has to be some process driven method to ensure smooth flow of system. It should not be individual driven system. All these reforms will be institutionalised,” Rama Rao said.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana jointly topped the ease of doing business ranking, in the index based on the degree of implementation of the government’s 340-point Business Reform Action Plan.
The list was prepared by the World Bank and the Indian government’s department of industrial policy and promotion this year.
Both states secured 98.78 per cent score.
According to Rama Rao, the state has attracted 2,550 industries or enterprises involving investments worth Rs 44,791 crore, creating about 5 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities.
“Over 60 per cent of those industries have become operational,” he said.
“In the past nine months, there were 66 meetings among various government departments; 26 legislations have been amended; 121 circulars were issued among all the government departments. All these measures have contributed Telangana to rank on the top of ease of doing business,” the minister said.
He further said that the government has done away with some of the “unnecessary” inspections by labour department, creating hassle-free environment.
PTI