Financial services an exciting aspect of the UK-India FTA, says Rishi Sunak
London:
The financial services sector offers an “exciting” prospect of a closer exchange between India and the UK with a free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the two countries, according to British Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Speaking with reporters ahead of the India Global Forum’s UK-India Awards to celebrate the Indian community’s success in the UK-India corridor on Friday, the senior British Indian cabinet minister said he saw enormous opportunities. sees for both countries in areas such as fintech and welcomed the opening in the Indian insurance market.
The minister also expressed confidence in Diwali’s time frame for a free trade agreement to be ready.
“Good progress is being made and I think one of the exciting things for me in my role is financial services,” he told PTI.
“Financial services is an area where there is huge opportunity for both countries. India’s goal is to spread insurance across the entire economy because insurance is great for enabling protection for individuals and for growth. That’s where we can in the UK because we have a great insurance industry and little by little we’ve been able to deliver more of those products, services and expertise to Indian businesses, citizens and businesses,” he said.
He also referred to India’s plans for a Sovereign Green Bond, and the UK, which made that journey, would like to help India raise that capital.
“It builds on a tradition of helping us provide capital to India from all over the world, because one of the defining moves of the capital of our time will be the flow of capital from the west into fast-growing India. That’s an incredible exciting and important And the UK can help be the place that gives India access to the largest pool of capital on the best possible terms to fuel its growth,” he said.
Speaking with the Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA), the cabinet’s senior minister said he is “very supportive of India playing an increasingly influential role in the region, and indeed the world” as a huge economy. and the world’s largest democracy and a free trade agreement would prove to be a greater champion of that cause.
The 42-year-old British-born minister of Indian descent, who said he was looking forward to a visit to India with his family soon, also emphasized the important role the British Indian community should play in strengthening a “partnership of equals”. is” between the two countries.
“The UK doesn’t have a monopoly on an opportunity. There are huge opportunities in India; we also want to make sure that if this living bridge becomes real, we need to make it easier for people in the UK to go to India, to studying at world-class institutions to work in all these great start-ups,” he said.
The minister pointed to reforms to the visa system to make it easier for talented Indians to come to the UK and said several categories are now open to talented Indians, including the new High Potential Individual visa.
“Our plan is to expand over time what we consider to be markers of high-potential individuals. So that the qualification criteria for that visa will expand over time, but that visa applies to people at the university So it will benefit Indian citizens… it is an incredibly generous and powerful visa that will benefit Indian citizens studying at any of these [global] universities,” he said.
When asked if he sees himself as the UK’s first Anglo-Indian Prime Minister, he spoke of Britain’s “openness and tolerance” that someone like him was the incumbent of 11 Downing Street in one of the highest posts in the UK. UK government.
“We need to make sure that this is not the end of the British Indian story. There is a lot more we can achieve. There is a lot more we can do. And that’s why I’m excited about the future,” said the lord Sunak, the son-in. Law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, said.
