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Naidu in Dubai, may powwow with select biz group

Our Correspondent in Dubai, the UAE

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is in Dubai on three-day "private visit".

According to officials, Naidu, accompanied by his wife N Bhuvaneshwari, executive director, Heritage Foods, a milk-processing and dairy company, and 16-year-old son, Lokesh Babu, arrived from Bombay by a Cathay Pacific flight on Wednesday night.

No state government official is accompanying Naidu who had visited the emirate a few years ago, as a member of the N T Rama Rao's Cabinet.

Speaking from Hyderabad, Naidu's public relations manager Vijay Kumar described the visit as "purely private one". Naidu is scheduled to fly back home on Saturday.

Government officials in Dubai said Naidu, who carries the tag of 'the' computer-savvy politician of Asia, is likely to address a meeting of a select group of Indian businessmen and investors on Saturday afternoon. He is also expected to call on the Dubai Crown Prince and the UAE Defence Minister General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

There has been talk that Dubai has evinced a lot of interest in sourcing businessmen and information technology professionals from Hyderabad -- billed as the New Silicon Valley of India -- for the Dubai Internet City, the world's first free trade zone for e-business set up in October 1999.

Business