The Andhra Pradesh government will soon enter into agreements with governments of Mauritius, Poland and Israel for transfer of technology related to e-governance.

Disclosing this at an interaction session with heads of Information Technology companies here today, state IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said Andhra Pradesh had been a pioneer in launching various e-governance initiatives like e-Seva for offering a gamut of government-to-citizen services.

"Officials from Israel have already visited the state to study our e-governance programmes and have decided to adopt them in their country. Similarly, Mauritius and Poland too have evinced interest in the e-governance initiatives," Ponnala said, adding that Sri Lanka too was in touch with the state government for launching e-Seva and other citizen services in the island nation.

The Minister said the Information Technology and Communications Department of Andhra Pradesh government would organise a two-day international event 'Advantage AP ? IT Summit-2011' at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre from March 1 to showcase the state as the best destination for investments in IT and IT-enabled services sectors.

"The aim of the event is to make Andhra Pradesh the most preferred IT destination in the country. The state has been proactive in attracting investments in IT/ITES sectors with its investor-centric policies," Ponnala pointed out.

Principal Secretary (IT) K Ratna Prabha said they were adopting a three-pronged strategy to boost the IT sector in Andhra Pradesh and eventually make it number one in the country.

"Building 'Brand AP', promoting IT growth in Tier-2 cities and promoting small and medium enterprises by creating business opportunities for start-ups are part of our strategy," Ratna Prabha said.

She said IT Towers would soon come up in cities like Visakhapatnam, Warangal and Tirupati. The Principal Secretary said IT exports from AP were expected to touch Rs 36,000 crore by the end of 2010-11 financial year. Last year, IT exports from the state amounted to Rs 33,482 crore, contrary to fears of slowdown owing to political turmoil.

IT/ITES Association of AP president L Suresh, Software Technology Parks of India director P Venugopal, Tata Consultancy Services regional head V Rajanna and others were present on the occasion.