The Hindu Business Line : `Market access key to boost India-UK cooperation'

MARKET access into India is extremely important and New Delhi should do all it can to strengthen it. This was stated by Ms Patricia Hewitt, the UK Cabinet Minister for Trade and Industry, while speaking to a group of reporters in Kolkata today.

She said that India itself pushed for market access, and it would be in order if it supported the principle when it came to its own economy.

Among other things, she felt that greater mutual market access, with regard to the UK and India, would have the effect of hastening the investment exchange that was being planned between the two countries.

She said she had a private meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today in the city where the latter had underscored the need to increase the flow of investment between the two countries.

Ms Hewitt will be in New Delhi tomorrow where she would be launching — along with the Union minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath — the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO). She said that Dr Singh felt that one of JETCO's main points of emphasis should be to step up investment exchange between the two countries.

The volume had increased by as much as 30 per cent last year but this was considered adequate considering the potential that existed.

Ms Hewitt said that the thrust should be on small and medium companies where the scope for an investment exchange between UK and India was appreciable.

In fact, one of the things that had to be done was to alter the perception of India prevalent among large swathes of the British business community which, admittedly, had changed for the better in recent times.

Among other things, she said the fact that India had today become "a place for high value-added production" had to be publicised, and that when one spoke of India what was being referred to was much more than just Bangalore or Hyderabad.

Speaking of the services sector, she said that, like India, UK too was among the leaders in the knowledge-based sector and that there were strong reasons for an opening up of the Indian market for, say, the financial and legal sectors.

Regarding the legal sector, Ms Hewitt said that an opening up of the Indian market did not mean that British lawyers would begin practising in India.

What would happen was that British law firms would be allowed to offer their services to international firms based in India.

As regards insurance, she said that the UK had a lot of expertise in the field which should be of help to Indians.

Agriculture and food production, and the healthcare sector were some of the areas which would gain prominence in the emerging Indo-British partnership. In particular, Ms Hewitt felt there was a lot of scope for Indian companies in Britain in healthcare.

Indeed, she added that this sector would be the next major area for cooperation between the two countries, and that a "fresh project" was in the final stages of preparation.

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