Red carpet for Singapore PM

By R. J. Rajendra Prasad

HYDERABAD, JAN. 19. The State Government has rolled out the red carpet for the visiting Singapore Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, to send the message that Andhra Pradesh is a ``happening State'' with a friendly investment atmosphere.

Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, a long time Singapore Prime Minister, and his successor, Mr. Goh, are the two leaders of South Asia admired most by the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, for the way they transformed a tiny City-State with a population of 28 lakhs, into a major economic power. If Hyderabad looks cleaner and neater compared to other metros in the country today, the credit should go to Singapore's experience which Mr. Naidu has tried to replicate here.

Even so, Mr. Naidu took personal interest in sprucing up the State capital. The road divider from Greenlands guest house to Rajiv Gandhi statue, a length of one kilometre, looks green with freshly laid grass and flowering plants. The bad patch of road towards Raj Bhavan was relaid for the Prime Minister's visit. Such extraordinary care and personal interest was not taken by Mr. Naidu, during the visit of other dignitaries in the past.

Despite several problems confronting the Government, Mr. Naidu is meticulously pursuing his goal of ushering in an atmosphere of ``good governance'' in the State. In line with this thinking, the entire Cabinet and all Secretaries to the Government today attended a presentation by Prof. Bala V.Balachandran, of the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management in the U.S., for about two hours on the theme of ``information systems and decision sciences''. This presentation was video graphed, and would be shown to other decision makers, such as Heads of Departments and District Collectors later. Next week, Mr. Prahlad, the ``management guru'' will make a similar presentation here.

This is a new experience for the Cabinet Ministers and Secretaries here, and there was a mixed reaction among them, some wondering of what use would such academic exercises be to them. Some of the concepts explained today, such as improving the profitability of an organisation through increased incentives, or reducing the spending, applies mainly to commercial rather than Government institutions. But even so, the idea is that exposure to new ideas and concepts would improve the quality of governance.

After a three-day holiday in Dubai, Mr. Naidu will travel to Davos, Switzerland on January 27 for the Economic Summit. He has to contend with the criticism of the Opposition parties that his schemes were aimed at self-publicity, that his achievements since the general elections last October were ``zero'', a continuing strike by junior doctors demanding higher stipend, among others, but the Chief Minister says he is fully committed to making Hyderabad a ``knowledge hub'' and Andhra Pradesh a fully developed State.

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