Mr D Tirupati Raju, Chairman, CII Visakhapatnam Zone & Executive Chairman, Vijayanagar Bio-Tech Ltd welcomed the Honourable Minister along with all the delegates to the session. In his welcome address, he briefed about the potential of Visakhapatnam in IT space in particular and Andhra Pradesh in general. He praised the honest efforts or the State Government in doing all the hard work to establish the new born city in the world map as an IT hub and attracting global players.In his address, Mr RVS Raju, Vice Chairman, CII Andhra Pradesh & Director, RHI Clasil Ltd briefed about the availability of skilled workforce in the city and the necessity of developing a better Social Ecosystem to attract skilled people to the city and create room for them. He also informed about CII’s initiatives in the field of Skill Development and urged all to make the City of Destiny the next big name in Information Technology.Mr G Murali Krishna, Vice Chairman, CII Visakhapatnam Zone made a detailed presentation on bringing back the past glory for Andhra Pradesh in the IT space. In his presentation, he suggested some ways on behalf of CII to take the things forward. He mentioned that though many things are in favour of Visakhapatnam, we need to focus on attracting big players, supporting local players, promoting start-ups, making Visakhapatnam Skill Capital of India and building the “Brand Visakhapatnam.Addressing the august gathering and delivering his Special Address, Mr Nara Lokesh, Honble Minister for Panchayat Raj, Rural Development, Information Technology & Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh thanked CII for reaching him out first to invite him for the scheduled Roundtable Discussion. Explaining the action plans of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, he threw light on the following areas which are on the cards of development.Rayalaseema region will be promoted as a Manufacturing Cluster while Visakhapatnam will be promoted as the hubs for Information Technology and Pharmaceuticals. Amravati will be the nerve center for High Tech IT, ITES and High Tech Manufacturing.Convincing Kia Motors to set up their operations in Andhra Pradesh was not easy. This will help the auto ancillary units to grow in that region. There are many more such world class organisations which are in line to come to Andhra Pradesh.Though the already established large industries will be given due importance, more focus will be on the development of small & medium enterprises as they are going to play a big role in coming days in the industrial revolution of Andhra Pradesh.Though financials is not a problem for the Government, proper utilization of the same poses a major challenge. Regular workshops are being conducted with the respective ministries to come up with a proper plan.He will follow the “One + Five” strategy which will focus on creating 1 lakh jobs in IT and 5 lakh jobs in other industries.He made very clear that the Government will not run anything but provide the all necessary support for doing and continuing business as the Government is very good at spending.The Government is pressing very hard to address the issues in the areas of Air Cargo Terminal, direct connectivity to various destinations like starting operation of Air India Express directly to Middle-East countries.