KTR rocks in Davos, where is Gautam?

At a time when Telangana Rashtra Samithi working president and Information Technology minister K T Rama Rao was rubbing his shoulders with top industrialists and business honchos of the world at the four-day World Economic Forum meeting that concluded at Davos on Friday, sadly there was none to bother about Andhra Pradesh.

One does not know whether there was any invitation to Andhra Pradesh for the WEF summit this year and whether the state government had many any attempt to put up its pavilion at Davos to attract investors. But there was no talk about AP nor was there any show from the state.

KTR met several leaders from across the globe, including central Ministers from various countries, top executives of global corporations, including Alphabet Inc. and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Coca Cola CEO James Quincey, Salesforce founder, Chairman Marc Benioff and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, besides Singapore business delegations led by minister Ishwaran.

KTR showcased Telangana to multinational investors with an intention to draw investors by setting up an exclusive Pavilion on the Davos Promenade.

The visit also fetched Rs 500 Crore worth investments from Pharma major Piramal group. Several business entities have evinced keen interest in investing in Telangana state.

One wonders why the AP government had not taken any such initiative.

While chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is understandably busy with his welfare schemes and also efforts to create three capitals for the state, industries minister Mekapati Gautam Reddy should have taken the initiative to go to Davos and showcase AP.

At a time when the investment climate has taken a beating in the last few months due to certain harsh measures taken by the Jagan government, it is the responsibility of leaders like Gautam to make use of such opportunities like WEF and take confidence building measures.

After all, Andhra Pradesh needs industrial development as well, apart from welfare schemes!