New Delhi: UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak met Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman virtually on Thursday for the 11th economic and financial dialogue (EFD) between England and India.
Naomi Canton met Sunak in his office directly afterwards.
Quotes from an interview …
How sharp is India in the UK-India FTA and can be signed faster than the EU one? At the end of the formal dialogue, Minister of Sitharaman, I and the strange 60s involved in the business forum are very supportive of this FTA and we go down to the detail of the mechanism which part of the government will do.
Everyone is committed to FTA.
Negotiations must begin before the end of this year and you can see our track record, we have been in Pace.
We are the only European country that enjoy comprehensive and strategic relationships with India agreed upon PMS in May.
What can be expected by Indians to see in this FTA? I am responsible for financial services and I can talk about it.
India is a rapidly growing economy.
How can we support the growth of Indian companies? We are strong in financial services here, we can help facilitate Indian growth and expansion and help get capital to them (companies).
My Ndian company has collected 13-14 billion pounds from the London market.
More than half of all masala bonds have been raised through London.
There is a rapidly growing consumer financial services industry in India.
For example, in insurance, where India opens the market.
Financial services companies such as HSBC and others can offer products, services to Indian consumers, often in partnership with Indian companies.
This is good for expanding choices for Indian citizens.
There has been a very strong relationship between our countries that create jobs in both countries and you will expect the FTA to do more than that.
There are about half a million jobs supported through trade and investment.
We are both economically oriented services, so there are special opportunities for both of us in service, especially financial services.
If you think about Indian infrastructure ambitions ahead, especially around zero clean, we can help finance the investment.
How can England help India reach zero clean? What we announced today is $ 1.2 billion direct investment to India.
Of this amount, $ 1 billion came from the CDC, the British development financial institution, in green projects over the next five years.
$ 200 million is a joint investment by us in the Green Equity Fund.
We also need to open hundreds of billions, if it’s not trillions, from the dollar the private capital.
Part of the current announcement is the Financial Financial Leadership Initiative (CFLI), a partnership involving the private sector and around $ 6 trillion in capital.
Macquarie group and tatas are involved in that.
We are aware of our responsibilities to help facilitate climate finance to transition to zero clean.