A 60-member high-level business delegation from the UK will visit the country ahead of him from January 14 to promote trade links between the two sides.
LONDON: To give a fillip to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's forthcoming India tour, a 60-member high-level business delegation from the UK will visit the country ahead of him from January 14 to promote trade links between the two sides.
Brown, who is visiting New Delhi for the first time as Prime Minister, will hold summit-level talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on January 21.
Lord Karan Bilimoria, Chairman of the UK-India Business Council, and Lord Digby Jones, Trade and Investment Minister, will jointly lead the delegation, which will include representatives of Airbus, BAE Systems, GKN and Rolls Royce.
The delegation will meet senior Indian business leaders and politicians, including Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, and top officials.
Lord Digby Jones said, "I love visiting India and this will be my second visit in four months. Our ties with India run so deep and together we can form a winning partnership.
We have the same spirit of entrepreneurship, same democratic values and great tolerance and ethnic diversity.
"My visit will focus on those sectors where the UK and India are ready to make business deals right now - automotive, advanced engineering and infrastructure. I am taking a business delegation of around 60 companies to help them team up with Indian companies."
He said he will first visit the Delhi Auto Expo and is looking forward to discovering all the new opportunities "where we can learn and grow from each other."
The delegation will be attending seminars and events including an automotive expo, an infrastructure and energy seminar, advanced engineering discussion and a CII partnership summit, which Lord Bilimoria will address on January 16. These sectors offer key opportunities for UK businesses in India.
Lord Bilimoria and UKIBC CEO Sharon Bamford will be speaking at, and actively participating in, a number of functions throughout the week to highlight the business opportunities that exist to promote UK-India bilateral trading.
Lord Bilimoria said, "I am extremely proud to be leading this important delegation to India with Lord Digby Jones. Our mission comes at a crucial stage in business and commercial relations between our two great nations.
We look forward to achieving further success at a time when India has become the largest investor into the UK and the UK looks to play an increasingly pivotal role in India's economic development."
A key role for UKIBC on this delegation will be identifying how to enhance deal flow. UKIBC will be identifying opportunities for UK businesses to tender for major infrastructure and building contracts in India and thereby looking to significantly increase deal flow between the two countries in 2008.
Sharon Bamford, Chief Executive of UKIBC said, "This delegation provides an opportunity to address the many tangible issues faced by organisations and individuals seeking to do business in India and the UK.
The delegation is supported at the highest levels of government in the UK and India which demonstrates aptly the growing importance of business and trade links between the two nations."
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