Prime Minister’s India visit to promote trade and investment
The government regards India as a vital regional and economic partner in the drive to boost exports and investment. Accompanying Mr Cameron will be Foreign Secretary William Hague, Chancellor George Osborne, Business Secretary Vince Cable, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Universities and science minister David Willetts and Climate change minister Greg Barker.
The UK already has close links with Indian business. Official figures for 2009 showed total bilateral trade was worth £11.5 billion, with UK exports to India totalling £4.7 billion and £6.8 billion of Indian imports.
India’s growing retail market is worth about £227 billion, and is expected to grow to £352 billion by 2014. It is the UK’s fourth-largest single investor, and approximately 40,000 Indian nationals study at UK universities - a figure Mr Cameron will aim to increase.
Tata is now the single largest manufacturer in the UK as a result of buying Tetley, Corus, Jaguar Land Rover and others. UK exports have not kept up with India's tremendous growth. We used to be India's fourth largest source of imports; now we're around 18th.
Business leaders taking part include BAE chairman Richard Olver; Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI; John Varley of Barclays Bank; Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB and Vittorio Colao of Vodafone. The bosses of The London Stock Exchange, The Open University, SAB Miller and the English Premier League are also among the sizeable business delegation while leading academics and sporting figures - including 2012 Olympics chairman Lord Coe - have also made the trip.
They flew into Bangalore, where many leading British firms have offices, and will spread out across the country over the next couple of days.
Wednesday, 28 July, 2010
