Following is the text of the statement made by the Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram during a joint press conference with Mr. Gordon Brown, Chancellor of Exchequer, Government of UK, here today:
"Chancellor Brown and I had a very pleasant and useful meeting earlier today during which we had an extremely fruitful exchange of views on wide range of topics of mutual interest. We also launched the first official level meeting of the India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue established by us in February 2005 in pursuance of the India-UK Joint Declaration signed by the Prime Minister of India and the Prime Minister of UK. The objective of the Dialogue will serve as a forum for having regular discussions on bilateral and global, on financial system and as the instrument to enhance economic and financial cooperation.
I am thankful to Chancellor Brown for having spared time to visit India in spite of his many other important pre-occupations. His visit has enabled both sides to intensify the process of regular bilateral consultations.
India attaches great importance to its traditionally warm and friendly relations with UK and keen to intensify the multi-dimensional Indo-British cooperation. India considers Britain as the heart of Europe both culturally and economically. As a key member of the EU and as a member of G-7, we value our interaction and friendship with the UK.
While the United Kingdom is India’s fourth largest trading partner and the fifth largest source of foreign investment into India, India has emerged to become the second largest investor in the United Kingdom in terms of number of projects. In fact, Foreign Direct Investment flows from India to the United Kingdom have exceeded those from the United Kingdom into India since 2004. India and the United Kingdom have revitalized cooperation in scientific research and sought ways to link science and innovation with enterprise. We feel the time is ripe to expand collaboration in knowledge-based industry and to stimulate greater investments in India by both large cooperations and small and medium enterprises.
We recognized the value that the private and public sector, working together in partnership, could provide in delivering world-class infrastructure and public services. We acknowledged that the skills and resources of the public and private sectors offer can significantly enhance the delivery of the increased infrastructure and public services and maintain their quality over the long run. We look forward to building on the existing dialogue on Public Private Partnership we have and further sharing our experience and knowledge."
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BSC/BY/GN-13/2007
(Release ID :24149)