Coastal Economic Zone Will Help AP Grow

The CEZ (Coastal Economic Zone) has been renamed as Coastal Employment Zone since it will boost employment in the coastal area. These will be set up on the 450km long coastline of Visakhapatnam and will cover an area of 400-500 sq km area. National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) has confirmed the project.

Andhra Pradesh has pioneered energy efficiency and conservation initiatives and the building of Coastal Employment Zone will facilitate Andhra Pradesh to top in employment also. The main aim of building CEZ is to create an ecosystem to bring large scale manufacturers that provide employment to semi or low skilled workers.

This project will be a port-led development model where investors can set up their manufacturing base.  Earlier built in China, it was spread across 2, 500 sq km each. This project has to be set up near deep-draft ports since it will be capable of accommodating very large and heavily loaded ships.

They would set labour intensive industries like footwear, clothing and electronics. The project is likely to be announced in the Union Budget for the year 2017-18. The budget might provide a 10-year long tax exemption to all the manufacturing units in the CEZs.

This project will help Andhra Pradesh grow economically and will also help become a gateway into India for Southeast Asian countries.