By Dominic Johnson
In February, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak welcomed a momentous deal worth billions of pounds for Airbus and Rolls Royce to provide new aircrafts for Air India. This has not only helped secure a new fleet for Air India, but will give a considerable boost to both the UK and India’s leading aerospace sectors.
That’s why I am in India this week; to meet with the investors, businesspeople and policy makers who make these grand investments happen. We want to lay the groundwork and create the incentives that will help grow both our economies.
I was lucky enough to visit Mumbai and Chennai in October last year. Meeting some of the top businesses from across key sectors such as healthcare and software development was a welcome reminder of the ingenuity and enterprising nature of the country, and not to forget the warm hospitality.
This year, I am delighted to be back in India and will be spending my time in the vibrant cities of Pune and Bengaluru. Both cities boast some of the country’s most exciting tech companies, these are ideal places to meet with the best and brightest innovators to understand how we can support even more mutual investment.
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Visiting India, set to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2035, is a fantastic opportunity to build on our thriving investment partnership. A partnership which was worth over £28 billion in 2021 and already supports over half a million jobs across both economies.
Together our governments have achieved great things. In April last year, we signed over £1 billion worth of commercial agreements, hailing a new era in our trade, investment and technology partnership. India is an increasingly important investor to the UK economy, with the second highest number of new FDI projects, just behind the US.
However, there is much still to be done. From software engineering and AI to healthcare and education, there are great opportunities across our economies. We are also lucky to both benefit from a common respect for rule of law and democracy that underpins the stability and good governance fundamental to a healthy business environment.
This is all being done in the context of the ongoing negotiations for a forward-looking and balanced free trade agreement between our two great countries, expected to bring billions to our economies in the long-term. This is a crucial step in the UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt, providing greater access to India’s fast-growing economy.
These negotiations grant us the possibility to make it even easier for UK businesses to invest in India and vice versa. By providing sufficient protections and incentives, investment will be the key to unlocking future growth and jobs.
As the number one recipient of new FDI projects in Europe for three years running, investment continues to pour into the UK for a number of reasons.
Investors interested in the UK will find a workforce which is the envy of the world. Driven by three of the top 10 global universities, employers have access to an expansive international talent-pool. Our credentials in technology could also rival any country as the UK was the first European nation to reach 100 tech unicorns, and now has more than Germany, France and the Netherlands combined.
I have seen first-hand how we are able to successfully channel investment into the hands of our greatest innovators. Earlier this year I had the privilege to meet some of the brilliant minds behind the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, whose main purpose has been to enable breakthroughs on the key issues of our time, including nuclear fusion, quantum computing and life sciences.
There is no better time than now to invest in the UK and, this autumn, investors from around the world will get the chance to see the best of Britain at the Global Investment Summit 2023.
With more than 200 CEOs of multinational companies and investment corporations attending, our unrivalled expertise will be showcased across emerging UK success stories in life sciences, deep tech, advanced manufacturing, nuclear fusion, and small modular reactors.
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I expect this to be one of the great global conferences this year as the inaugural event in 2021 brought in nearly £10 billion on the first day alone. At this year’s event, investors can get even more bang for their buck as they now benefit from the recent post-EU Exit financial liberalisation encapsulated in the Edinburgh reforms. These reforms have been crucial to improve the competitiveness of the UK’s financial services while building on the foundations which have made the UK a world leader in the sector: agility, openness, and consistently high regulatory standards.
I’m confident my time in India will prove to be full of insights into why it’s one of the most exciting countries for innovation and entrepreneurship, and I look forward to continuing the deep relationship between our countries.
The writer is UK minister for investment
