KCR to visit US to ink MoUs for investments

Pooja Jain

In a bid to gather investments for the State, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao will make his first formal visit to the US in July.

His son and IT Minister K T Rama Rao had visited the US in May. His two-week visit was aimed at meeting various leaders of the IT industry seeking their co-operation in investing and setting up offices in the State. During the course of his visit, he had met various heads of Google, Microsoft, CISCO, various other entrepreneurs and industrialists.

KTR also held talks with two NRI associations, the Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) and the American Telugu Association (ATA).

In his string of meetings in New York, Washington DC, Dallas, Bay Area, Pittsburg, New Jersey, many IT leaders and entrepreneurs had expressed their willingness to establish their operations in Hyderabad. Upon being briefed by KTR about the positive response from US-based industrialists and magnates, the Chief Minister has decided to give final touches to the deals and ink MoUs seeking investments.

The investors, who agreed to set up their firms when KTR promoted ‘Vibrant Hyderabad’, in US belonged to the pharma, defence, aerospace, IT and electronics sector.

Sources from Chief Minister’s Office are positive that investments could materialise if he met the industry captains and business heads.

The three-week trip is likely to happen in the first week of July. Besides holding the investors meet organised by TITA, KCR will also attend the event organised by ATA in Chicago.

Sundeep Kumar Makthala, Global President of TITA, confirming the news of KCR’s visit to the US stated that the expectations are high from the visit. He said, “KTR recently announced the annual report for FY16. The report mentions about the digital literate initiatives. The main focus of the Digithon is to seek adoption or sponsorships for digital literate initiatives. Besides seeking investments, KCR in his US trip will also promote the concept of Digithon to push ahead the digital literacy programmes.”

Meanwhile, reports also claim that TITA has planned an event to felicitate the CM for his successful completion of two years and laud him for his role in statehood movement.

This visit will mark KCR’s first tour to the US. KCR obtained a passport only after taking charge as CM in 2014 and thereafter travelled to China, Malaysia and Singapore to study their economies and seek investments.

The CM's eagerly awaited visit by the Telengana NRI's in the US may turn positive as he is known for his suave talk and keen business acumen. Though he applied for a US diplomatic visa and secured it in December 2014, KCR’s visit to the US could not materialise earlier.