Prez urges Indo-UK business leaders to promote trade, investment

President Pratibha Patil today urged business leaders of India and the UK to work actively for promotion and enhancing the trade and economic relations between the two countries.

Addressing a function organised by the UK-India Business Council here, the President said regular interaction between the business leaders of the two countries would further enhance bilateral trade and investment and also work on barriers that impede growth.

Expressing satisfaction over the significant rise in trade and investment flow between the two countries in the last decade, Ms Patil said while the UK was one of India's most important trade and investment partners, the latter has become one of the largest investors there.

Noticing that there have been significant investments in IT, life sciences and advanced engineering, Ms Patil said India has become one of the fastest-growing source of investment in the UK.

Indian companies were also looking at expanding their operations to the EU with a base in the UK, she added.

''India's dynamic growth coupled with its large reservoir of skilled workforce, its commitment to democracy and the rule of law, all taken together make it a very attractive country to do business with. We have achieved levels of European productivity at 20 per cent of cost and, continue to remain competitive in labour costs,'' she said.

Talking about global economic downturn, Ms Patil said despite the recession, '' we have performed well in 2009 and expect to grow by around 6.3 per cent in 2009-10 and recover to seven to 7.5 per cent next year.'' Welcoming British investments in diverse areas, the President said there was huge potential for cooperation in many areas. The government was taking steps to streamline the process and speed up business projects, she added.

Talking about capital cost advantage, Ms Patil said it ''should be a major incentive for companies thinking of a long term presence in India. There is also great advantage in developing collaboration between Small and Medium Enterprises and entrepreneurs of the two countries, which should be explored.'' India has made big strides in IT and Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS), a sector that showed remarkable resilience even in the face of a global meltdown, Ms Patil said, adding that aggregate revenue from the overall Information Technology-enabled Services grew by over 33 per cent to reach 64 billion dollar in fiscal year 2007-08 as compared to 48.1 billion dollar in 2006-07.

The UK was one of the key markets for Indian IT BPO exports, she noted. Ms Patil also urged the two countries to work for free movement of professionals and businessmen to sustain flourishing business links.

-- (UNI) -- 29DF7.xml

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