Masayoshi Son, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Japan’s SoftBank Corp, on Tuesday expressed interest in collaborating with Andhra Pradesh for projects in the renewable energy sector.
Son, accompanied by Nikesh Arora, President of SoftBank Corp, and Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, met with the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
This was a follow up on a meeting Naidu and Son had in Japan last year.
The Chief Minister told Son about the advantages of a long coast on the East, which makes it a potential logistics hub.
“The East Coast of Andhra Pradesh has an advantage in serving and exporting goods to South Eastern markets like Malaysia, Singapore, China etc,” he said.
Stating that SoftBank could also look at cooperation in manufacturing, the Chief Minister asked Son to explore ways of collaborating in hardware (electronics) projects.
On Monday, SoftBank teamed up with Bharti and Taiwanese firm Foxconn for a $20-billion solar venture. In the past, too, Son had expressed interest in projects in the State’s renewable energy sector.