NEW DELHI: The lack of progress in the financial sector reforms will come up for discussion when British prime minister Gordon Brown meets prime minister Manmohan Singh here on Monday.
Ahead of Mr Brown’s visit to India, British high commissioner Sir Richard Stagg maintained that India would gain more from liberalisation in banking and legal sectors than the UK. On legal services, the high commissioner’s pitch was that the UK would lose more than India if it liberalised legal services. He said liberalisation would make India into a dynamic legal centre. “From our perspective, the likely loser of the outcome of liberalisation will be the UK. There will be fewer Indian lawyers going to the UK... The UK and US law firms will move away from a high-cost economy,” he said.
Aware of the resistance from Indian lawyers here and those practising in the UK, he said those groups could be compensated by the government. “Almost all win except for groups of people who have narrow sectoral interests,” he said.
On banking sector reforms, the high commissioner said the move was essential for India and would encourage competition in the banking sector. “We strongly believe this is a mutual-benefit agenda and will bring benefits to India,” he said. Interestingly, the British government is also scouting for opportunities for its firms in the financial and legal services in China.
This is said to be part of Mr Brown’s agenda in China.
However, the UPA government is keen to push financial sector reforms, but has been unable to make any forward movement in the face of opposition from its Left allies. In fact, finance minister P Chidambaram recently said he was surprised by people who wanted 9%- plus GDP growth but did not want any changes in the structure of the banking and other sectors.
One of the aims of the Indo-UK summit is to strengthen business and trade linkages. According to government figures, the UK is India’s fourth largest global trading partner and the second largest in the EU, with annual two-way trade of around 8.5 billion euros in 2006. India is also the second-largest investor in the UK, in terms of number of projects, investing over £1billion.
Mr Brown and Mr Singh will look at increasing these linkages, but at the same time, will focus on other aspects of the strategic relationship. The two leaders are expected to discuss civilian nuclear cooperation, counter terrorism, climate change, business cooperation and regional issues. Mr Brown packed itinerary includes attending a women’s empowerment event, an entrepeneurship summit and being conferred an honourary degree from Delhi university.
Ahead of Mr Brown’s visit to India, British high commissioner Sir Richard Stagg maintained that India would gain more from liberalisation in banking and legal sectors than the UK. On legal services, the high commissioner’s pitch was that the UK would lose more than India if it liberalised legal services. He said liberalisation would make India into a dynamic legal centre. “From our perspective, the likely loser of the outcome of liberalisation will be the UK. There will be fewer Indian lawyers going to the UK... The UK and US law firms will move away from a high-cost economy,” he said.
Aware of the resistance from Indian lawyers here and those practising in the UK, he said those groups could be compensated by the government. “Almost all win except for groups of people who have narrow sectoral interests,” he said.
On banking sector reforms, the high commissioner said the move was essential for India and would encourage competition in the banking sector. “We strongly believe this is a mutual-benefit agenda and will bring benefits to India,” he said. Interestingly, the British government is also scouting for opportunities for its firms in the financial and legal services in China.
This is said to be part of Mr Brown’s agenda in China.
However, the UPA government is keen to push financial sector reforms, but has been unable to make any forward movement in the face of opposition from its Left allies. In fact, finance minister P Chidambaram recently said he was surprised by people who wanted 9%- plus GDP growth but did not want any changes in the structure of the banking and other sectors.
One of the aims of the Indo-UK summit is to strengthen business and trade linkages. According to government figures, the UK is India’s fourth largest global trading partner and the second largest in the EU, with annual two-way trade of around 8.5 billion euros in 2006. India is also the second-largest investor in the UK, in terms of number of projects, investing over £1billion.
Mr Brown and Mr Singh will look at increasing these linkages, but at the same time, will focus on other aspects of the strategic relationship. The two leaders are expected to discuss civilian nuclear cooperation, counter terrorism, climate change, business cooperation and regional issues. Mr Brown packed itinerary includes attending a women’s empowerment event, an entrepeneurship summit and being conferred an honourary degree from Delhi university.
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