Andhra Pradesh state will soon have its own Start-up Village for IT companies on the lines that were established in Kochi. Visakhapatnam is the preferred destination for the proposed Startup Village, other coastal places are also in consideration.

AP IT Advisor J. Satyanarayana and a team of officials will be flying to Kochi on Friday for a firsthand understanding of the Start-up Village established there and an assessment will be made after the team returns to the state which has aimed to attract 1000 technology start-ups in the next decade. Satyanarayana speaking to an English daily said “IT policy would be geared up to attract more investments, entrepreneurs and start-ups. A set of 18 policies, including one on hardware, have been formulated and would be placed before the State Cabinet for approval. Once they get a nod, AP will kick start attracting investors in India and abroad, particularly in the United States and Japan for software sector and Taiwan and South Korea for hardware.

Andhra Pradesh IT exports was expected to be only 0.25 per cent as majorly Hyderabad was the centre of IT in undivided state. The government wants to make it five per cent in the next five to six years Vizag could be the mega IT destination while cities like Kakinada, Tirupathi and Vijayawada are on the radar.

AP government has prepared a blueprint for the IT and Communications segment and the goal is to achieve IT investments worth USD 2 billion by 2017 and USD 5 billion by 2020. The other targets are to attract USD 5 billion investments in electronics manufacturing by 2017 and USD10 billion by 2020. The government is also planning to penetrate broadband services in all gram panchayats by 2017 and to all villages by 2020.

(AW: Vamshi)