Liberlisation of services can bring tremendous benefits

Hyderabad, Mar 27: The Lord Mayor of the City of London Alderman David Brewer today said liberlisation of services would bring tremendous benefits.

Participating at a seminar 'The City of London-Your gateway to global business' here, Lord Mayor said liberlisation of services injects competition, spuring growth, innovation and greater consumer choice, driving down costs, and improving efficiency.

He said a lesson of London's success over the last two decades was that the presence of foreign firms could bring major benefits in developing a financial centre.

''There are now 287-odd foreign owned banks in London. Equally, the UK economy benefits from sourcing increasing quantity of services from India. I realise there are issues with some elements in India who are fearful of globalisation,'' he added.

He said City of London was not only the world's greatest repository of global, international financial expertise ranging from core industries such as banking, insurance and fund management, but also associated areas of accountancy, actuarial skills, transport, and legal services.

''All these can be of enormous help in establishing the 'soft' infrastructure which Indian companies need to support their continuing development and carry rapidly the attack on poverty and skill shortage,'' he said.

There has been a steady growth in bilateral trade and investment between UK and India, Lord Mayor said, in Andhra Pradesh there were currently over 30 Indo-UK joint ventures. ''The UK development assistance will increase over the next two years to 300 million dollars in 2007-08. We are encouraging closer education links between UK and India and in September, the British Prime Minister will pledge 10 million dollars to a new UK-India Education Inititive,'' he added.

Later, in an informal interaction with media, Lord Mayor said they expect foreign participation in insurance sector to go up in India in the coming days.

He said the purpose of his visit was to promote links between London city and other major cities of India. ''This is my second visit to Hyderabad, I have warm recollections of my first visit in 2003 and of my meetings here with both business representatives and with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, which has done so much to sponsor a key area of financial services in India,'' he added.

Earlier, participating in the seminar organised under the aegis of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), College of Law of England and Wales Legal Training and Consultancy Specialist Nick Olley said they were conducting Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT) twice in April and October in India at two centers in Delhi and Mumbai. Lawyers, having two years experience in India were eligible for it. The lawyers, qualified in the test would be given training to work with law firms in UK and these lawyers could also practice in UK, he added.

UNI