India-UK summit to leverage India-UK business relationship

Mumbai, Sep 24 (UNI) Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC), Mumbai, and London Chamber of Commerce&Industry (LCCI), UK, are jointly holding a India-UK Business Summit with the objective of doubling the two-way trade and investments within three years.

To be held under the IMC's banner of 'India Calling 2006', the three-day event will be held at Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London between October 1 and 3, an IMC release issued here said.

This private sector initiative has received full support from the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs of Government of India, Indian High Commission in UK, and a host of Indo-British organisations and corporations.

Over 125 Indian businessmen from a cross section of Indian corporates will be participating in the summit and more than 150 businessmen from UK are expected to attend. This summit will showcase some of the important projects in infrastructure area and other booming sectors in India, looking for technology transfers and investments from UK.

Similarly Indian companies, that are participating in the summit are looking for suitable British SMEs as partners to set up their joint ventures in UK and other countries in Europe. Also, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs will highlight various policy measures announced by the Government of India to help NRIs invest in India and also listen to their difficulties.

IMC President Nayan Patel said the summit's various sessions will deliberate on a wide range of bilateral issues with the objective of building a strategic business partnership between India and UK and projecting India, which is one of the world's fastest growing economy, as a land of tremendous opportunities.

Some of the other features of the summit include projecting UK as an attractive investment destination for Indian corporates by highlighting that country's excellent social and industrial infrastructures and providing a platform for the participants to acquaint and interact with business people from across the globe and identify new areas of business interests including technical collaborations, joint ventures and acquisitions.

Mr Patel said that Indo-British Partnership Initiative (IBPI) has come a long way in bolstering the bilateral commercial ties and has made UK as India's No 1 investment destination in Europe.

The two-way trade between India and UK was around USD 10 billion in 2005-06. ''Our aim is to double it in the next three years by harnessing the untapped potential in both the countries. More specifically, huge opportunities are available in the area of business partnerships to British companies in India for maximizing trade and investment opportunities,'' he said.

Some of the speakers likely to attend the event include Vayalar Ravi, Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, G Gurucharan Singh, Joint Secretary, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Anil Agrawal, Chairman, Vedanta Group, K Livingstone, Mayor, of London, and others.

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