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Trade Minister Lord Livingston makes second visit to International Festival of Business

Minister for Trade & Investment Lord Livingston has made a second visit to the International Festival of Business (IFB), confirming Government support for the event, after Chancellor George Osborne announced that the event will take place in Liverpool again in 2016.

The Minister was in Liverpool to address a UKTI trade conference on India, in the same week that George Osborne and William Hague visited the country and announced investment deals worth up to £120m during a visit to Mumbai.

Lord Livingston first visited Liverpool on 9 June to speak at the opening ceremony of the British Business Embassy. Yesterday he returned to see the festival in full swing and meet the IFB management team. He also visited PlaceEXPO, the IFB investment exhibition area, hosted by Liverpool Vision and organised by Place North West.

The visit began with a tour of the IFB Hub with UKTI North West Director Clive Drinkwater, followed by a briefing on Malaysia where he addressed a selection of UK companies and officials from Malaysia’s Iskandar Regional Development Authority.

Lord Livingston then delivered a speech to over 100 companies at the UKTI India International Trade Conference.

The event included the opening of a British Business Centre in Bangalore via video link.

UKTI has been working together with the British Chambers of Commerce and overseas business associations to enhance the role of the private sector in providing support to UK companies seeking to export to new markets. In India, a partnership between HMG and UK India Business Council has seen business centres open in Delhi and now in Bangalore.

Lord Livingston said: “I am delighted to be back at the International Festival for Business speaking about opportunities to enhance our trade and investment relationship with India even further. We are also strengthening ties with key networks such as the UK India Business Council, making sure British companies get the support they need to succeed overseas.

“India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Whilst the UK and India are major trading partners, there remains huge opportunity to increase exports and investment and I hope events such as this will assist in achieving this.”

Of 1200 Indian companies in the EU, 700 are in the UK, including Genser Aerospace, which has set up its European headquarters in Manchester, and Tata, one of the UK’s largest manufacturing employers.

India is expected to be the world’s third largest car market by 2020, and its aerospace market is one of the fastest growing globally. Its healthcare market is also growing at 15% a year and by 2017 there will be 35 million students attending university in India.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .