Lord Dominic Johnson, the UK's Minister for Investment, is currently in India to boost the investment partnership between the two countries in the technology and life sciences sectors. The visit aims to strengthen the bilateral investment relationship and add momentum to the ongoing trade talks between the UK and India. This comes as the ninth round of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) is underway.
The UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced earlier this week that Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has been "hard at work" to progress the FTA discussions. Lord Johnson visited Mumbai and New Delhi in October 2022 to meet with investors and businesses, including Apollo Hospitals, Prodapt, and Wockhardt.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has described India as a "priority market" for the UK, and Lord Johnson's visit is seen as an effort to support the ongoing FTA negotiations. The minister will also promote the Global Investment Summit 2023, which will bring together more than 200 CEOs of multinational companies and investment corporations in the UK later this year.
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According to the British government, the UK-India investment partnership is thriving, with over £28 billion invested in each other's economies, supporting over half a million jobs. The inaugural Global Investment Summit in 2021 secured nearly £10 billion of new foreign investment on the day, and this year's event will showcase emerging UK success stories in life sciences, deep tech, nuclear fusion, and small modular reactors (SMRs), and manufacturing.
Lord Johnson will meet investors and leading Indian businesses, including Infosys and Zensar, in Pune after visiting Bengaluru. He will also promote the UK as the "undisputed number one investment destination in Europe." According to official UK government statistics, total trade in goods and services between the UK and India was £34 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2022, an increase of £11.6 billion from the same period in 2021. India accounted for 2.1% of total UK trade and was the UK's 12th largest trading partner in the same period.