Soft Bank keen to invest in AP's projects

Hyderabad, June 23 (INN): In a high-level meeting with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today, Japan's Softbank Corp. founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Masayoshi Son said that they are interested to collaborate with the Government of Andhra Pradesh in renewable energy.

Nikesh Arora, president of Japan's SoftBank Corp. and Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises too were present in the meeting.

This is Mr. Son's courtesy visit to meet the Chief Minister following their meeting last year in Japan. During the meeting, Mr. Son said: 'I'm happy to be here. I'm confident that we will work well,' he said.

Explaining about the advantages of Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister told Mr. Son that the state has a long coast on the East which makes it a potential logistics hub for South East Asia. 'On the East Coast, Andhra Pradesh has an advantage of serving and exporting goods to South Eastern markets like Malaysia, Singapore, China, etc.'

Andhra Pradesh has T&C losses at 10.6%, the Chief Minister said, adding that in another 2-3 years, the state's T&C losses will drop to 5-6% on par with international standards. 'We have surplus power and water. We've turned our state around from a power-deficit to an energy secure state,' he added.

The Chief Minister sought Soft Bank's collaboration in renewable energy to make the future sustainable. 'I'm aware of your future plans for which you think big. We need your support in working on socially responsible programs and in a sustainable way,' the Chief Minister added.

Stating that Soft Bank could also look at cooperation in manufacturing, the Chief Minister asked Mr. Son to explore ways of collaboration in hardware (electronics). The Chief Minister also explained about how Andhra Pradesh has succeeded in plugging leakages in the Public Distribution System through e-Pos where the government has saved nearly Rs. 50 crore by increasing the efficiency by 14.2%.

During the meeting, Mr. Son explained that Soft Bank has formed a joint venture with India's Bharti Enterprises to make investments in renewable energy in India. India can become probably the largest country for solar energy, he said.

Mr. Son said that he met the Prime Minister on Monday (22 June) and promised to make $20 billion investments in solar and wind energy projects in the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister informed Mr. Son that Andhra Pradesh has unveiled Solar and Wind policies, the first of its kind in the country that allow solar and wind hybrid model projects. 'We want to work transparently,' the Chief Minister added.

Replying to this, Mr. Son said that Soft Bank will work to make Andhra Pradesh a model state for the country in solar plus wind hybrid projects in the country.

'These projects will not only boost the economy but also provide employment to people. The reason Soft Bank is focussing on renewable energy is because we believe we need to be responsible for our future generations without relying completely on non-renewable energy,' Mr Son explained.