CII Partnership Summit day two: Rs 1,41,585 crore in deals; Kia signs for Penukonda plant

Andhra Pradesh signed 11 memoranda of understanding and issued one government order worth a combined Rs 1,41,585 crore on Friday, 13 November, the CII Partnership Summit’s second and closing day in Visakhapatnam, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said.

The agreements could create 10,919 jobs, Naidu said in a post on his official X account. The projects range from data centres, IT and electronics to clean energy, aerospace and defence, shipping and ports, and manufacturing. The papers changed hands at an MoU and G.O. exchange ceremony he attended at the summit venue, the Andhra University College of Engineering grounds.

Naidu also thanked Hero MotoCorp, which is backing 1,120 students with Brijmohan Lall Munjal scholarships, and ITC, which is helping 25,000 families enrolled as Bangaru Kutumbams under the state’s P4 programme.

Kia’s Penukonda agreement

Late on Thursday, 12 November, the Chief Minister’s Office said Kia had agreed to set up another plant at Penukonda in Sri Sathya Sai district with an investment of Rs 19,000 crore, and that the project would provide 12,000 jobs. The MoU was signed in the presence of Naidu and Gwanggu Lee, managing director and chief executive of Kia India, who met the Chief Minister on Thursday with a senior vice-president of Kia Corporation.

Kia India already makes cars at Penukonda. Its 536-acre plant there began trial runs in January 2019 and was built to make 3 lakh vehicles a year. On the government’s own figures, the Kia project accounts for more promised jobs than all 12 documents exchanged on Friday put together: 12,000 against 10,919.

Thursday’s 303-MoU announcement

Speaking at the opening session on Thursday, Naidu said the state would sign 303 MoUs worth Rs 9.89 lakh crore at the summit. By 4 pm on Friday, neither Naidu nor his office had posted a combined figure for the two days. Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan was due to speak at the valedictory session on Friday, 13 November.