The Partnership Summit organized by the government after a gap of nine years on Thursday at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) has proved to be a big boost for Andhra Pradesh, which has been reeling under political uncertainity for the past two years. The government on the very first day of the summit signed six major MoUs worth 1 lakh crore with GMR, GAIL, the BR Shetty Group and Yash Birla Group. The amount of investment is set to increase with many more to be signed on the remaining two days of the Summit.

After nine years, the government managed to successfully organise the Partnership Summit in the state and the mood at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) on Thursday was that things were looking up after two dismal years marred with political instability. With the Summit cancelled in the last two years due to turmoil over Telangana, this is the first time that the Congress government managed to hold a Partnership Summit; the last one was during Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu's regime in 2003 when it had been a yearly affair (from 2001 to 2003).

The general consensus on Day 1 seemed to be that if the government’s aim had been to restore the confidence of investors and entrepreneurs by conducting the Partnership Summit, then it had succeeded. "The issue is not about the investment proposals that came or the total amount of investment promised at the Summit. Hosting the Summit successfully after a gap of nine years itself is a big achievement in the backdrop of political disturbances and agitations in the state during the last two years," said Mr Yash Birla, chairman of Yash Birla Group, which has inked MoUs to invest nearly 5,000 crore in the state. Mr A. Shekar Agarwal, managing director of a textile firm from Gujarat, added, "The success of the Partnership Summit has boosted the image of Andhra Pradesh."