AP attracted no FDI despite tall claims of YSRC govt, says Dinakar

VIJAYAWADA: Lanka Dinakar, BJP political feedback pramukh, has asserted that not a single dollar worth new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) came to the State after Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s visit to Davos despite the tall claims of CM and his ministers at different fora. 

In a press release on Sunday, Dinakar said this information was obtained through the Right to Information Act from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Foreign Investment Facilitation Section, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. 

“Jagan and his ministers have misled people that thousands of crores of investments flooded the State. It is unfortunate that the government, which claims to be the best in ease of doing business, has failed to understand the reason for the no flow of FDI,” he said. 

Giving the details, Dinakar said the State has failed to attract FDI and mentioned that Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Gujarat are the top six States that attracted FDI in 2021-22. “Karnataka registered 187% growth in FDI, Delhi 50%, Tamil Nadu 30%, Haryana 67%, but what about AP?” he wanted to know.  

Elaborating further, he said India’s FDI in 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 was USD 74.30 billion, USD 81.97 billion and USD 83.57 billion respectively. About USD 240 billion worth FDI came to the country in the last three years and AP accounted for only USD 55.42 million during the period. Even this amount was due to previously agreed projects prior to 2019, he pointed out. 

He felt scrapping of Amaravati as the sole capital, reverse tendering, lack of proper attention to development of National Industrial Manufacturing Zone at Kaigiri and Yerpedu have sent wrong signals, damaging the brand image of AP.