The Hindu Business Line : `India, UK trade ties stronger than ever'

Kolkata June 20 Stating that the India success story was "very much here to stay", Sir Michael Arthur, the British High Commissioner to India, said that "India and UK are now engaged in one of the most profitable and significant bilateral trade and investment partnerships".

Speaking at an interactive session on `India-UK Business Relations', organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Sir Michael said here today India will over the next five years create one in every four of all new jobs in the world, "and by 2020, an extra 200 million jobs — more than America, Europe and China combined".

Noting India's growth in various sectors, he said it was heartening that "today the ties that bind Britain and India together are becoming stronger than ever and the mutual cooperation is at such a heightened level". According to him, while UK was the third largest inward investor in India since 1991, India has emerged as the third largest foreign investor in terms of projects, second only to the US and Japan. Some 500 Indian companies are now working in Britain.

Future ties

Besides manufacturing, some of the key areas of future cooperation between the two countries, according to the envoy now on a farewell visit to Kolkata (he is taking over as UK's Ambassador to Germany), were financial services, information technology, biotechnology and agro-business, especially infrastructure like cold chains, cited as one of the UK's areas of strength.

He said further development of financial markets in India could open up broader links between the service sectors of the two countries, especially in areas such as insurance, accountancy and legal services. Seeking more India-UK joint ventures in areas such as IT, education and vocational training programmes, he said the UK would like to work with India on "clean coal technologies".

Describing the UK as the gateway to the 500-million strong EU market for Indian businesses, Sir Michael said the business mindsets between entrepreneurs of the two countries were similar. The sheer comfort factor is enough to spur the process to greater heights, he added.

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