Amarnath trashes TDP claims, says AP received Davos invite on Nov 25

VIJAYAWADA: Rubbishing the Opposition TDP’s claims that the YSRC government was not invited to Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), Minister for IT and Industries Gudivada Amarnath on Tuesday clarified that they had received the invite on November 25 itself.

Representatives from Andhra Pradesh could not attend the conference as the State government has been making arrangements for the Global Tech Summit, scheduled to be conducted in Visakhapatnam on March 3 and 4, the minister said while speaking to reporters in the Port City. He showed the WEF invite, addressed to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, to the media as well.The World Economic Forum summit commenced on January 16 at Davos in Switzerland and will conclude on January 20.

He explained that the delegates, currently attending the WEF, have been invited to the Tech Summit to showcase the opportunities in Andhra Pradesh, the top ranking State in Ease of Doing Business in the country.

Lambasting at the TDP leaders, the IT minister said Andhra’s GSDP at 11.43% is better than the national average, while exports from the State this year till date are valued at Rs 1.5 lakh crore.“By October 31, last year, exports from Andhra Pradesh stood at Rs 97,000 crore, whereas it was only Rs 55,000 crore from Telangana,” he said.

In a dig at the previous TDP regime, the IT minister said the previous government focused only on publicity and that their attendance at the five WEF summits yielded little in terms of investments. “Meanwhile, a single visit by Jagan in November last year saw the State signing MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore,” Amarnath pointed out.

Asserting that the YSRC believes in staying grounded to reality and giving facts, he said, “During the five years of the TDP regime, there was no pandemic like Covid, while the current government spent most of its time addressing crisis. However, the State managed to garner attention of the world and ensured investments in green energy.”

Earlier in the day, TDP politburo member Bonda Umamaheswara Rao claimed that Jagan has not received the invitation and his arrogance is driving existing industries and potential investors away from the State.