MNCs express interest in Telangana

Hyderabad: A day after the annual meeting of World Economic Forum (WEF) was thrown open at Davos, Telangana received good response from multinational companies that evinced interest in establishing their operations in the State.

IT and Industries Minister K Taraka Rama Rao met top executives of various companies and business leaders in Davos and explained the enormous opportunities that Hyderabad and other parts of the State had to offer.

In a series of meetings, Minister Rama Rao spoke about prospects for the foreign investors in Telangana and also highlighted the Telangana government’s industrial policy, TS-iPASS, a single-window clearance initiative for investors. He invited business heads to Telangana to look into the opportunities for foreign investors.

Mitsubhishi Heavy Industries team led by its executive vice president Ken Kawai evinced interest to invest in major industrial parks and waste management projects in Telangana.
The Minister invited the Mitsubhishi delegation to visit the State to learn about investment opportunities and urged them to collaborate with the State government in establishment of Japanese Small and Medium Enterprises Park in the State.

JICA and other Japanese financial institutions had agreed to extend financial aid for establishing such industrial parks during the Rama Rao’s recent visit to Japan.

Aloke Lohia, founder and group chief executive officer of Thailand-based Indorama Ventures PCL, one of the world’s largest polyester companies, also agreed to examine the feasibility of investments in Telangana.

During the meeting, the Minister explained about the State’s progressive industrial policies and also the existing textiles ecosystem in the State.

He said several Korean textile majors were already establishing their units, and invited Lohia to explore investment opportunities in Kakatiya Mega Textiles Park which is touted to be one of the largest textile park in the world.

With AirAsia Berhad’s CEO Anthony Fernandes and Deputy CEO Aireen Omar, Rama Rao discussed the prospects of setting up AirAsia’s Tech Center and running innovation programmes to support startups in the aerospace sector.

The Minister also invited Mohammed I Al Shaibani, CEO of Investment Corporation of Dubai to Telangana and explore the possibility of setting up a Tech Centre and other potential areas of investment in the State.

Pekka Lundmark, president and CEO, Fortum – a leading clean-energy company based in Finland, also held discussions with the Telangana delegation, when the Minister explained Telangana’s journey from a power-deficit State to a State that provides round-the-clock power supply to domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors.

He told Lundmark that Telangana was focusing heavily on clean energy and was the leading producer of solar power in India. Hewlett Packard Enterprises senior vice president Ana Pinczuk met the Minister who invited the HP team to visit Hyderabad and collaborate with T-Hub in innovation pace and also expand HP operations in the State.

The Telangana delegation had good interactions with senior management of companies including Kalyani Group, Dalmiya Group, Deloitte and many more, during the second day of WEF and interacted with multitude of prospective investors.