Visakhapatnam: AP Chief Minister N.  Chandrababu Naidu reiterated on Wednesday that he had laid the foundations for the surplus economy that Telangana now enjoys, the only state to do so apart from Gujarat. He was speaking during the launch of the AP industry mission here. His assertion comes against the backdrop of Telangana CM, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, contradicting Mr Naidu’s contention.
 
Mr Naidu said he had created Cyberabad and a new economy in just nine years as the CM of undivided AP. “Now, Telangana enjoys a surplus economy, but I laid the foundations for it. Earlier, there were only two cities, Hyderabad and Secunderabad, but I created one more, Cyberabad. With that experience, I will build Andhra Pradesh to be the preferred destination for investments, the number one state in the country,” he said.
 
Mr Naidu said despite many problems created by the bifurcation — ruling AP from a faraway place, no division of bureaucrats, deficit budget — the state registered an 8.5 per cent growth in the first year and he was aiming for a double digit growth rate in the coming years. He also said Andhra Pradesh has rich reserves of bauxite, birates, granite, limestone, beach sand and efforts are on add value to them.