Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr. Alistiar Darling, Mr. Kamal Nath, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very grateful to Prime Minister, his colleagues and to each one of you for the time that you have spared this afternoon. I know the leaders of Indian and British business do meet often, both here in London and in New Delhi. But I am happy that we have this opportunity today to interact with you. As I have often said, the relations between nations are a sum of the relations between our peoples and our businesses. What augurs well for the growth of our relationship is that the political leadership in both the countries is convinced that we must forward and we must move forward with dedication and speed.

I recall the initiative that both our Governments took way back in 1992, when the Indo-British Partnership Initiative was launched, to revive trade and investment relations between our two countries. I believe the IBPI was a useful initiative and there has been a quantum increase in trade and investment flows between Britain and India in the past decade.

However, the time has come for a great leap forward. I know that both Prime Minister Blair and I would like to see that happen and I am glad that the first signs are highly encouraging.

Earlier this afternoon, many CEOs of the two countries had met Mr. Blair and me and given several suggestions to further increase trade, investment and other economic engagement. We have assured them that their inputs would be given due consideration in the evolving policy framework. But as the Prime Minister said politics is the art of the possible, so that constraint is something which cannot be wished away.

But I assure you that we have removed most barriers to foreign direct investment in India in the manufacturing sector. I would like to see higher FDI inflows, particularly in infrastructure from Britain.

Our Government would like to see a further liberalization of trade in services, including financial and legal services. I am aware that there is great interest in Britain in our financial sector.

I do believe we need to promote a widely held pension fund system. We need a much larger insurance sector with a higher capital base and more diverse products. It is these which will generate the necessary long-term funds for investing in a debt market and make available resources for the investment needs of our country particularly in the vital infrastructure sector.

I am confident that we will in the near future be able to forge a meaningful political consensus and take reforms of the financial sector forward.

I wish to assure investors here in the United Kingdom that India adheres to all international codes and regulations pertaining to safety and protection of investment and intellectual property. We also have in place a well-designed system of standards for data protection. Investment in India is both safe and profitable and we are always to learn from our friends about what more can be done in this regard. We have signed an MoU with Britain to strengthen our cooperation in Intellectual Property Rights. India offers tremendous new opportunities in manufacturing, particularly in automobile and auto-components, pharmaceuticals & bio-technology and food processing. We welcome small and medium enterprises from Britain to look more favourably on the prospects of profitable investments in our country.

I am aware that there is a lot of dynamism among small and medium enterprises in Britain. They can be engines of growth in India too based on innovation and adaptation.

Many global corporations have made India their research base. Inward investment in R&D is rapidly increasing in India. The educational and research institutions of United Kingdom have been significant suppliers of technology to Indian firms and institutions. The recently launched UK-India Education and Research Initiative which owes great deal to the forward push given by the Prime Minister himself, has the potential to vastly increase collaboration between the educational institutions of the two countries and to facilitate exchange of students. This would give a fillip once the issues of Visas and Work Permits for students are further streamlined.

For me a visit to Britain is always a sentimental journey, and a journey into my youth. I am very grateful to Prime Minister Tony Blair for his warm hospitality and strong support to further promotion of our multi-faceted relationship. I sincerely hope we can all work together to write a new chapter in Indo-British relations. I thank you.

London
October 10, 2006

 

 Back