The relationship between UK and India is expected to undergo a significant change in the post-Brexit world. India's growing economy has been an alluring factor for the UK, and the relationship promises to grow stronger in the coming few months. From free trade to immigration, there is already a noticeable paradigm shift and the upcoming 'India Britain Trade Expo’ in London is the UK’s earnest effort to finally take this relationship to the next level.
It is a fact that UK has always been a corridor to the European market for the Indian companies, but the same organisations are now trying to understand what Brexit's affect would be on their current status in the UK or to their future investment possibilities. At this critical stage, DUP leader Arlene Foster in an exclusive interview told the Asian Voice, how India plays an important role in the UK's future outside Europe.
Foster, who is one of the keynote speakers in the upcoming 'India Britain Trade Expo' on 12 March 2019, at Westminster's Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, will share the stage with Deputy Mayor of London for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, who supports Bremain and 'London is Open' campaigns.
“I had the great privilege to be the Trade and Investment Minister for Northern Ireland for 7 years,” she said. “I have visited India with a group of interested companies from Northern Ireland on a number of occasions, to Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. I believe that in the post-Brexit scenario, there are great opportunities for companies right across the UK, in particularly in Northern Ireland to do business in India. There is a cultural symmetry between Northern Ireland and India, something that can be built upon to do business together.”
Foster served as Northern Ireland's Minister for the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment from June 2008 until May 2015. During this period she was instrumental in promoting Northern Ireland's Tourism industry and securing massive levels of investment into the economy. She provided record levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and support for local businesses, despite the backdrop of a global economic downturn. Indian companies like HCL, Polaris, PixTransmission, Tech Mahindra set up their offices around the same time and the demands for setting up more of such companies especially in areas like IT, biotechnology, engineering among others are increasing.
At the same time the Republic of Ireland is leaving no stones unturned to woo Indian companies, even from smaller towns of India, to come here and set up their base in order to service Europe, especially after Brexit. Recently stories emerged of Irish businessman Michael Dineen from Cork, who has founded Contracting Plus, a 120 employee company in Kerala, that supplies accounting and tax services to independent professional contractors based in Ireland.
Speaking about the growing interest and possibility of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between UK India, Foster said, “I hope we can find new opportunities with our friends and colleagues in India and other Commonwealth countries.”
“Under the leadership of Prince Charles, we will be looking into a new role for Commonwealth- its use in a more meaningful and tangible way,” she added. Britain and India laid the ground for a possible post Brexit bi-lateral free trade deal and signed off on a series of commercial agreements worth up to £1bn, when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the UK in 2018.
Foster, who believes that leadership is a lot about one's 'personality' is in agreement with Prime Minister Modi, who has attributed the success of a meaningful UK-India relationship on an engagement with the Indian diaspora- what he calls the 'living bridge'.
“The Indian diaspora is very important,” said Foster. “I have worked with Lord Rana from Belfast who has come with me to India on one of the trade missions. He is from Punjab and he does a lot of work in India, in education with young people, which is his great passion. The Indian diaspora is not particularly big in Northern Ireland but it is very important and one of the oldest and well settled communities of Northern Ireland. Something we value very much.”
But while Brexit brings many hopes for a better UK-India relationship, Theresa May's Government has had a track record of hostile environment towards immigrants- especially the highly-skilled migrants, who have been booked for mere tax discrepancies under Article 322(5), a law made for dangerous criminals and terrorists. But Foster thinks that the situation will change after Brexit. “I was with Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Wednesday, discussing about his white paper and immigration plans.”
“Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK which is going to have a border with the Republic of Ireland. So we have to bear it in mind, the terms of the flow of people, and we have to see that is done in a way that is advantageous to the whole of the UK, particularly to Northern Ireland. We are going to keep that conversation going with Mr Javid.” A group of officials went to Delhi last week to discuss the scope of the policies mentioned in Javid's White Paper, clearly highlighting the importance of the Indian sentiment, in the making of the UK's upcoming immigration rules.
For more information on the India Britain Trade Expo see http://indiabritaintradeexpo.com.
