‘American firms now prefer Hyderabad over Bengaluru’

HYDERABAD: More companies from the US are choosing Hyderabad over Bengaluru to set up shop, because real estate is cheaper, trade investment policies are favourable, and ease of doing business is greater here, US Consul General Katherine B Hadda told the Express team during Express Chat on Friday.
Though she did not mention any specifics regarding the situation in Andhra Pradesh, she heralded the two Telugu-speaking states as the best in the country in attracting investments from foreign firms.

“I see a lot of companies expanding their footprint in Hyderabad. And what I am told — even though there are more companies in Bengaluru — a lot of these companies are preferring to either open up operations or expand here in Hyderabad rather than in Bengaluru, because real estate is much cheaper here, because the trade investment policies are open and helpful.

“You have a situation of presupposed approvals here — that if a company does not hear from the government with questions, or saying that they cannot invest here, then the investment is presumed to be approved in 15-30 days. In Andhra Pradesh, the situation is similar,” said Hadda, whose tenure as the Consul General is set to end later this year.

However, she conceded that the situation of the Indo-US trade relationship was “not positive” in the country. “What we are seeing now are developments that we see consider less positive - national government’s economic policy vis-a-vis our economic interests. There have been more restrictions placed on our e-commerce companies like Walmart that invested in Flipkart.

“What we find is, especially the atmosphere in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, is open and far-minded. Once the elections are over, we would highlight what we consider the best practices,” Hadda said, noting that the Model Code of Conduct was in place in light of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. She also said the Embassy sends inputs on the economic/political scenario and the sector-wise analysis of the industry in the States where the Consulate is based, back to the United States. “We have the foreign commercial services to analyse a certain sector and what the situation they are in. However, we will never make a recommendation to companies and ask them where to invest,” the Consul General said, adding that the department only “supports” American companies wanting to invest in the country.