The Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting, Shri Arun Jaitley during his 2 day visit to the UK, had a number of engagements. On Friday 13th March, the Minister met Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer at 11, Downing Street, London, followed by a breakfast roundtable.
He then made his way to the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which put in all possible efforts to welcome Mr Jaitley. The iconic building was decorated in tricolours with a special welcome message. Jaitley described the stock exchange as “one of the premier hubs globally for any financial activity.”
He was welcomed by Xavier Rolet, CEO of the LSE, who said, “London Stock Exchange has more Indian companies listed on our equity and debt markets than any other international market and provides cutting edge technology to some of India's leading exchanges.
"India's most dynamic companies have access to the world's largest pool of institutional investment capital here in London.
"The Indian government's recent significant reforms, such as the 2014 Depository Receipts Scheme, have made it even easier for Indian companies to access London's international investment community to realise their global ambitions and we look forward to working with Indian partners to maximise these opportunities.”
Following that Jaitley addressed more than 30 of London's leading institutional investors, discussing the steps taken by his government to increase foreign investment into India's infrastructure and manufacturing sectors.
Exchequer Secretary to the UK Treasury and the UK Prime Minister's 'Indian Diaspora Champion' Priti Patel, who led the roundtable discussions, said, "We established the India-UK Financial Partnership, to encourage greater financial co-operation, trade and investment between the UK and India, and the roundtable today is an important part of that partnership".
Jaitley also met Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour party and Her Majesty's Opposition. Speaking to about the meeting Miliband said, “I was delighted to meet Mr Arun Jaitley, Indian Finance Minister...
“We spoke about the continuing importance of Gandhi's legacy in politics, not just in India, but across the world.
“We also discussed the invaluable contributions British Indian’s make to our society and the Labour Party’s desire to deepen the relationship with India.”
In reference to that meeting, when asked Jaitley said, “India has also had historically close ties with the Labour party.”
He also attended the formal launch of Union bank of India in London, followed by a conference organised by the High Commission of India, UK India Business Council and FICCI.
On Saturday after the Gandhi statue unveiling, Jaitley at an exclusive meeting with Indian origin ournalists, spoke about his meeting with the Prime Minister David Cameron. He said, “This morning I called on the Prime Minister (David Cameron) and with regard to what is happening in the Indian economy, as far as the reform process is concerned, there is a huge amount of interest that all British leaders have.
“The passage of Insurance Bill in Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian parliament) on the eve my visit here could not have come at a better time.
In reference to his other key meetings during this visit, the Finance Minister spoke about his meeting with Prince Charles at Clarence House on Friday.
“This was really in connection with his charities and expansion of those activities in India. There is some activity and an advisory committee he has in the context of India and he is quite keen that some of those programmes could be expanded, so we shared some ideas on that,” he explained.
Speaking about his meeting with the Chancellor, Jaitley added, “it was really about the economic cooperation between India and UK.
“We recently met when he came to India and then in Davos, both of us had a meeting. There are not too many outstanding issues. India's investments here and the UK's investments in India are quite strong and improving.
