The Hindu : Next CII summit also in Hyderabad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Next CII summit also in Hyderabad

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD JAN. 8. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will hold its next Partnership Summit -2004 in Hyderabad, making it the third time in four years that the city will be playing host to the event.

This was announced by the Chairman of the summit, Sanjiv Goenka, in response to the requests by the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Tuesday and again today for making Hyderabad a permanent venue for it. "How can we say no to you. Your wish is our command,'' he added at the concluding session.

Summing up the achievements of the four-day Summit, which was attended by 1200 delegates, Mr. Goenka said that as many as 41 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) totalling Rs. 17,000 crores were signed by the Andhra Pradesh Government. The CII arranged 75 business meetings for overseas teams and 14 bilaterals with the Chief Minister.

Earlier, Mr. Naidu made a hardsell of Hyderabad to the CII by stating that Hyderabad had been identified as one of the cities of the future by an international magazine. Hyderabad was transforming rapidly to become an icon of modern India and a hi-tech hub of technology in this part of the world.

The Chief Minister stressed the need for a radical rethink on all that was holding back the country. He said the focus must be as much on hardware as on software and greater freedom given to private enterprise to flourish by changing labour laws.

Articulating the State Government's viewpoint, the Minister for Major Industries, K. Vidyadher Rao, said the Centre must abolish irrational taxes which were encouraging trade rather than manufacturing. He stated that the duty on assembled electronic hardware was less than the imposts on goods assembled in the country. Similarly, in respect of complex fertilisers, the duties on raw material were less than the finished product.

Mr. Rao made a pitch for removing restrictions on foreign direct investments (FDI) to facilitate the growth of economy and creating employment. He also pleaded for speedy decisions on the reforms in labour laws proposed when Yashwant Sinha was the Finance Minister.

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