Speech by Hon'ble President of India, Shrimati Pratibha Devisingh Patil, at the Guildhall Reception in London

Your Royal Highness,

The Lord Mayor,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be here this evening at this function in the historic Guildhall in the City of London, a city renowned for its dynamism and vitality.

Like a magnet, the City of London attracts the best professional and creative talent from across the globe. Over a period of time it has excelled in innovation, high-tech and creative industries. It is for these reasons that businesses across the globe consider London as the financial capital of the world.

India and the UK enjoy a robust and vibrant relationship. Since 2004, when India and the UK entered into a Strategic Partnership, our relationship has been on a high growth trajectory. Our two countries cooperate across a very broad spectrum. The UK is the fourth largest investor in India, while the UK is the second most favoured destination for investment by Indian companies. The Indian companies last year secured more than 20,000 jobs. This is the second highest number of jobs secured by a foreign employer in the UK.

My visit is taking place at a time when the global economy, which had been confronted by an acute economic and financial crisis, appears to be on the path of recovery. We are happy that our two countries, along with the other major economies of the world, have been able to demonstrate the virtue of working together to deal with the global downturn. I believe our two countries have a responsibility to consolidate this process through the long overdue structural reforms of the international financial system. India, as the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, with its consistent growth performance and abundant high-skilled manpower, provides enormous opportunities for investment, both domestic and foreign, and is ready to assume its responsibilities in this reformed international system.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In 1947, our founding fathers gave us a vision of building a nation that is liberal, plural, secular, democratic and multi-cultural in its outlook, with a society founded on the principles of social justice and equity, with an economy that was self-sufficient, vibrant, modern and open to the world.

In 1991, as part of our ongoing quest for this vision, we undertook comprehensive reforms of our economy aimed at accelerating the pace and quantum of investments in India. Policy measures have since been taken to raise the standard of living of our people by stepping up investment activity in the country and generating employment opportunities. Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. It offers huge investment potential in diverse sectors like infrastructure, retail, real estate, automobiles, food processing, information technology, knowledge process outsourcing, business process outsourcing, healthcare and telecom among many others. Our economic policies have acceptance across our political spectrum. India is, undoubtedly, among the most attractive destinations globally for doing business.

In the infrastructure sector alone our investment requirements are expected to exceed US$ 550 billion over the next five years. This is sought to be realized through a combination of public investment, public-private partnerships and private investment. The British experience of public-private partnership and public sector capacity building would be especially useful to us. The Memorandum of Understanding between India's Ministry of Finance and the UK Treasury in August 2008 to develop a framework to support Public Private Partnership initiative is an outcome of our mutual desire to tap the potential of infrastructure development in India. We look forward to significant investments from the City of London in this sector.

India's steadily increasing urbanisation and the rapid growth of the electronic media have brought about sweeping changes in the lifestyles and consumption attitudes of our people. The availability of cheap consumer finance has served to increase disposable incomes. These factors have generated a growing demand for a variety of quality products and services ranging from home appliances and electronic goods to restaurants, travel, communication and entertainment. Today, in India, we have a very substantial middle class with growing purchasing power. All this should be of interest to businessmen all over the world.

I would like to mention about opportunities emerging for international partners as India expands its healthcare infrastructure. India and the UK may also look for synergies between the two sides in the area of E-health. I am told that the Indian Community in the UK has contributed significantly to the health and education sectors, as also to the other sectors of the US economy. Given their talent and their spirit of enterprise, I am confident that they would continue to play a positive and significant role in the national life of the UK.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The transfer of technology, especially at a time when all of us are concerned about the adverse effect of Climate Change, is a priority for us. Both our countries realize the challenges and issues arising out of the need to tackle climate change. India has adopted an ambitious National Action Plan on Climate Change, which seeks to simultaneously advance its development and climate change related objectives of adaptation and mitigation and promote efficiency and natural resource conservation. Towards this end, the UK Government and the Government of India have decided to collaborate on a study to assess the barriers to transfer of low carbon energy technologies between the developed and developing countries. India looks forward to cooperating with the UK on development of clean technologies, sharing of technical know-how and constructive partnerships. Financing of such projects that support mitigation of Green House Gases would ultimately result in good returns on investments and strong economic and environmental benefits.

India today is a confident nation that is fully integrated in the global economy. We have confidence in our dynamic youth to lead our nation in the 21st Century. We believe that our partnership with the UK is in our mutual interest. Let's join together to work for global peace, harmony and for the betterment of humanity through our partnership.

I would now like to propose a toast:

- to the Lord Mayor and the City of London Corporation; and

- to continued friendship between the peoples of India and the United Kingdom.