Hyderabad: The Telangana government will pitch for investments in sectors that have huge employment potential, at the 50th edition of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, who will be leaving for Davos on January 19, will be representing the State at the annual WEF meeting scheduled to be held from January 21 to 24. “My focus as Industries Minister will be on sectors such as electronics, food processing, textiles, life sciences and IT as they have potential to create jobs,” the Minister said speaking with select media here on Thursday. He, however, pointed that merely attending the Davos meet need not necessarily result in immediate investments flowing into the State.
“Opposition parties often ask about the outcome of such meetings immediately after my foreign trip, and seek to know what I had achieved. It won’t happen in the first round itself, and our efforts yield fruit only after repeated follow ups. It is my fiduciary responsibility that I go out there and pitch for investments, and say that Telangana is open for business,” Rama Rao said, adding: “As a man that worked in sales, I know how many times one must meet the top to bottom of a company just to make a sale.”
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The Minister, who could not attend the 48th and 49th editions of WEF, said that Davos provides a rare opportunity to meet the cream of world industry in a matter of three days which otherwise would take three years to materialise. “They come to Davos with a specific purpose, they won’t waste time. They talk and move. This time I have scheduled meetings and also some follow ups particularly in the IT sector,” he said, and expressed the hope that some of them might translate into announcements, while some of them could simply be ice-breakers.
Elaborating on showcasing Telangana at the WEF, Rama Rao said that he could introduce the new born State of Telangana to the who’s who of world economic leaders sitting at Davos. “These are chance meetings where you get to know people and once you know them, there is a chance that if they think of India, they might think of Telangana. There is a recall value. Once you break the ice, they are hardly a phone call or mail away. If you don’t know a person, then it is a difficult issue,” he explained. He gave the example of Mahindra setting shop in Warangal as a follow up to his repeated efforts.
Recalling his previous experience at Davos, he said that he had some 45 bilateral interactions, and attended three sessions. “This time too, my hands are full. Some members of my team have already reached Davos and the Telangana Pavilion is ready. I will be there on January 20 and start meeting people from the morning of 21,” he said.
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His absence, however, will not be a problem here as the State was going for municipal elections. “Municipal elections are important too but political activity will be mostly over by the time I leave,” the Minister, who is also the working president of TRS, said.