US President George W Bush's visit in Hyderabad is expected to give a further push to Hyderabad's image as an emerging global city and an ideal investment destination, say industry leaders.
A trip to the city on Friday by the world's most powerful man will help Hyderabad get recognition at the international level and open the door to new investment in this Andhra Pradesh capital, famous for its pearls, palaces and mouth-watering cuisine as also for IT, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, they say. "Bush's visit will help the city to emerge on the international map. It will provide tremendous trade spin-off benefits and open the doors for foreign direct investment," said Shakti Sagar, managing director of ADP Private Limited. Sagar, former president of the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA), hopes that all sectors including IT would benefit from this visit. "The visit will help the city grow faster," he said. With Bush's four-and-a-half hour visit, Hyderabad will earn the distinction of being the only city besides New Delhi to be visited by two US presidents.
Though Bush will not visit HITEC City, the IT hub, and will only interact with farmers and scientists at an agriculture university and entrepreneurs at the Indian School of Business, business leaders expect that the visit will turn the spotlight on the city as was the case during his predecessor Bill Clinton's visit.
During his visit in March 2000, Clinton had addressed IT leaders at HITEC City. The IT hub, which then had only a few major companies, have attracted many multinational companies during the last six years. IT exports, which were a mere Rs 200,000 in 1991-92 and Rs 20 billion in 2000-01, are now expected to cross $2.5 billion during the current financial year. Industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) also hailed Bush's visit. "The visit is coming at the right time as the city has just bagged the prestigious $3 million FAB City project. The visit by Bush will definitely help in attracting semiconductor majors to the proposed facility," said G Vivekanand, Vice Chairman of CII, Andhra Pradesh, and managing director of Visakha Industries.
"It is already a boom time for the city with a new international airport, FAB City and several infrastructure projects coming up and the US president's visit is expected to give further momentum to the pace of development," said DV Manohar, chairman, Shakti Group of companies and past chairman of CII. "Few people in the US know about Hyderabad but the visit by their president will help the city get recognition. We hope that this visit would help Hyderabad attract investment as seen after Clinton's visit," Manohar said.
They pointed out that Hyderabad was the only Indian city apart from New Delhi that Bush was visiting and this underlined the importance the city had gained during the last few years in various sectors.
No comments:
Post a Comment