India is Asia's second largest investor in Britain

Thursday, 08 July 2004, 19:30 IST
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LONDON: India has emerged as Asia's second largest investor in Britain with an impressive 47 percent increase in foreign investment projects in the last fiscal, official statistics showed Wednesday. Twenty-eight Indian companies invested in Britain during 2003-04, bringing India Inc.'s presence in the country to 480 firms, said figures release by the United Kingdom Trade and Investment. Japan was the top investing country from Asia with 52 projects, while China ranked lower than India with 23 projects, the data showed. Overall, 811 investment projects from 40 countries set up operations in Britain in the last fiscal, up 14 percent from the previous year's figure of 709. "The year 2003-04 continued to witness recognition by Indian companies that the UK is the ideal business investment location of choice in Europe, and second only to the US globally," said Mark Dolan, deputy director, inward investment. "India is now the second largest source of foreign direct investment into the UK from Asia in terms of projects and jobs generated, and ranks among the UK's top 10 foreign direct investment markets." UK Trade and Investment is Britain's official organisation to provide integrated support services for British companies engaged in overseas trade, as also foreign businesses focused on the UK as an inward investment location. According to the agency, manufacturing now represents just under a fifth of the British economy but accounts for more than 30 percent of inward investment projects and some 40 percent of jobs created. A number of sectors have seen significant investments -- notably IT, software and electronics with 217 projects, and biotechnology and pharmaceuticals with 58.
Source: IANS
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