"Mumbai is overcrowded and it is better to move out to Hyderabad", Naidu said, promising the best of infrastructure and facilities to institutions wanting to move over to Cyberabad.

Some of you may have doubts on the prospects here but you will see for yourself that we have the political stability and over the next five years there will be tremendous changes, the chief minister said.

"So if you miss the bus now, you will regret it afterwards", Naidu told the gathering of economists, financial experts and chief executives. Lending a helping hand to the chief minister were none other than ASCI chairman N Narasimham who felt the potential for Hyderabad to develop as a major financial centre was considerable though there was not much presence of financial institutions here.

With the opening of the insurance sector it is perhaps not too much to expect some of the new companies to be set up here, he said adding that the city had always had a strong pharmaceutical and IT presence.

Significantly, Andhra Pradesh has taken a major step forward in electronic linkages and its pioneering efforts in the IT sector would be a good platform for developing the type of electronic communications and funds transfer mechanisms that a financial services centre needs, Narasimham said making a strong case for the city to emerge as a major financial centre.

In fact, some companies like GE Capital Services have already started looking towards Hyderabad for starting some of their back office operations.

In fact, the state government is understood to have identified nearly 5000 acres of prime real estate, adjacent to the proposed international airport, where it is hoped some of the institutions would be willing to set up shop. The state government will be making a presentation on some of its plans towards this on Saturday at the end of the two day conference.