Amaravati, Aug 26 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday requested banks to set up their offices in Amaravati and help the state government create a Financial District.

At a meeting of the state-level bankers committee here, he said that the government is ready to allot necessary land, and banks should come forward to set up their offices in Amaravati.

The Chief Minister also requested the bankers not to trouble Amaravati farmers in extending loans on their returnable plots. He said bankers should give priority to extend loans to the poor and weaker sections in addition to farmers and tenant farmers.

He appealed to bankers to extend cooperation to fulfil the aim of the state government towards women empowerment by making one lakh women as women entrepreneurs by March 8, 2026.

The Chief Minister said that he promoted one family-one software engineer in the past and is now promoting one family – one entrepreneur norm and giving priority to develop women as entrepreneurs.

He said that the DWCRA group’s women members achieved economic progress by availing of loans from banks, and now banks should come forward to extend loans to women entrepreneurs as the state government decides to develop MSME parks in all 175 Assembly constituencies.

The Chief Minister said that bankers should come forward to encourage youth and women by extending financial assistance to start-ups with lower interest rates by interlinking with the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub, which was inaugurated at Mangalagiri and five other centres in the state recently.

The Chief Minister opined that banks should upgrade their policies to suit the next generation’s needs, as India is going to pose a challenge to China and the USA by introducing next-generation economic reforms. He said both the banks and public policies should not dictate terms to people, and they should encourage people with people-friendly policies. He said that the Central government is also bringing reforms in GST to suit the present needs.

The Chief Minister appealed to bankers to become partners of P-4 programme launched by the state government to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

Referring to the delay in Kharif season loans to farmers, the Chief Minister said half of the Kharif season has been completed, and the banks should have given loans to farmers by this time, as there is no use in sanctioning loans at the end of the crop season.

The Chief Minister urged the bankers to extend cooperation through funding for the infrastructure and irrigation projects taken up by the state government. He said that the state government is planning to develop Andhra Pradesh as a logistics hub to reduce the logistics cost from the present 14 per cent to a single digit.

M. Nagaraju, secretary, Union Ministry of Finance, said that bankers in Andhra Pradesh performed well when compared to other states.

–IANS

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