Buying in to shared prosperity with an emerging economic superpower

As an emerging economic superpower, it’s no surprise India now ranks among our largest sources of foreign direct investment, with more than £9 billion ploughed into the UK in 2021 alone. Our trading relationship supports over half a million jobs in both economies and has grown in recent years to be worth some £34 billion today. Last year, we announced £1 billion of new commercial deals with India, creating 11,000 jobs here in the UK. I want us to exceed that number in 2023 and beyond.

Investment like this is crucial for our economic growth. It creates jobs and powers prosperity across the length and breadth of the UK. And it is my job to get investors around the world to realise what a wonderful destination the UK can be for them – a winning combination of stability, security, and skills.

That’s why I was delighted to join the UK India Business Council and HSBC , at an event that brought together some of the biggest names in corporate India to discuss the exciting opportunities in our shared future. We have robust foundations upon which to build – now we must seize the chance to make the most of everything the 21st-century global economy has to offer, both now and in the decades to come.

The links between UK and Indian businesses are old and strong; Indian technology firm WNS Global Holdings, which was spun out of British Airways in the early 1990s, and ICICI Bank , one of the largest financial groups in India, which actively supports UK-India trade. I heard directly from ICICI Bank UK ’s CEO Lok Mishra about the Bank’s investment into the UK and about ICICI Bank’s MoU with Santander UK to provide banking services including trade finance, cross-border payments,

Another example is Wipro , a firm that started out in the aftermath of the Second World War as a family-run vegetable oil producer, which has grown into a truly global information technology, consulting, and business services company. More than 67% of Wipro’s economic interest is pledged to philanthropy. Today, it has more than 250,000 workforce-serving clients in dozens of different countries around the world, and revenues of nearly US$11bn. More than 5,000 people across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland already work for Wipro. Not only is it spending £16 million on a state-of-the-art new UK HQ in central London, but it is working with King’s College London to support the development of the UK’s first ever Master of Arts in Science, Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing (STEM) degree, designed to help equip the leaders of tomorrow with the tools they need to overcome the environmental challenges that beset humanity. It’s also one of the founding members of ‘Transform to Net Zero’, whose aim is to accelerate the transition to a net zero emissions global economy. 

These individual stories of collaboration and success are great to hear. But they also make sense on a strategic level for the UK. The Indo-Pacific is fast becoming the world’s centre of economic gravity, and now we are in charge of our own trading destiny, we can and should shape it accordingly. India alone is set to become the world’s third largest economy with a quarter of a billion middle class consumers by 2050. That’s why our Secretary of State has made securing a UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) one of her top priorities, along with accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership – a club including some of the world’s biggest current and future economies, worth £9 trillion in GDP.

We have already agreed a 2030 Roadmap with our Indian friends and partners which sets its sights firmly on doubling our trade by the end of the decade, in part by sealing a world-class FTA – an approach that’s already delivering results. Only last month, the Prime Minister joined our Secretary of State in welcoming a momentous deal for Airbus and Rolls-Royce to provide new aircraft for Air India. It is worth billions of pounds to the UK, and will support and create new highly skilled jobs in Wales and Derbyshire.  

The UK has now hit £2 trillion of foreign direct investment, its highest ever, second only to the United States. I want to see that figure grow. Increasing investment into the UK is something I’m deeply passionate about, which is why I’m incredibly excited that the UK is hosting its second Global Investment Summit later this year. I am dedicated to making the UK the most attractive place to invest, the UK economy boom, and the British people prosper.