The UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee
By UK India Business Council (UKIBC)
The UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) met last week on the margins of the TECH Summit in New Delhi - agreeing a range of new initiatives
The 11th edition of the UK- India Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO), New Delhi, 7 November 2016. Image credit: British High Commission/Flickr
The 11th meeting of the Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) took place on 7 November in New Delhi, led by the Indian Minister of Commerce, Nirmala Sitharaman, and the UK’s Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox.
The Ministers announced the creation of a third Working Group, which will be a G2G Group looking at the economic relationship, and which will conduct an audit of the opportunities for the two countries – and the barriers. Nirmala Sitharaman, the Indian Commerce Minister, confirmed that the working group will cover trade in services as well as goods, across all sectors, along with investment and labour mobility.
Although the WG’s discussions will lay the foundations for a possible future Free Trade Agreement or Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement post-Brexit, it will focus on actions that can be taken by both governments before then.
There are two other WGs – Smart Cities and Advanced Manufacturing and Technological Collaboration. Both are business-led, with the UKIBC acting as the UK Secretariat. The Groups met in advance of the ministerial meeting, and reported to the Ministers at the Plenary.
Smart Cities Working Group
The Smart Cities Working Group, co-chaired by Pradeep Puri of ILFS and David Whittleton of Arup is also taking a forward looking and proactive approach, and agreed to focus on a small number of areas where there is mutual UK-India interest. These smart regeneration of cities, including around railway stations; intelligent transport systems (ITS), covering smart roads and railways; waste to energy and renewables; and innovative water and waste technologies.
The WG is planning workshops in India, bringing together government, industry and NGOs to identify how the UK and India can collaborate the help India achieve its Smart Cities Mission. A key part of the discussions will be on the governance and management of infrastructure projects in India.
The WG reiterated its commitment to continuing its support for the governmental efforts in the smart cities where there is an existing partnership, particularly Pune, Indore and Amaravati. The co-chair reported to the Ministers the work done in the UK in 2016 to support visits to the UK by the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh (Amaravati) and Madhya Pradesh (Indore) and by senior officials from Pune.
Advanced Manufacturing and Technological Collaboration Working Group
The manufacturing working group, led by co-chairs Rhydian Poutney of Renishaw and Dr Gopichand Katragadda of Tata Sons, has been able to make significant progress on a number of agreed areas since the last meeting.
Key achievements in technology collaboration, and the training and skills development area include the initiation of an UK-India Centre of Automotive Excellence (SEMTA engaged through a UK Government initiative), and assistance in upgrading engineering tool rooms in India (MoU signed between TWI, UK and the Indian Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises). On supply chain collaboration, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has signed a Letter of Intent with ADS to roll out the global SC-21 programme in India.
The Working Group agreed to work with a wide group of UK and Indian businesses to create wider and deeper advanced engineering and manufacturing links through the newly launched UK Future Manufacturing Collaboration in India programme being funded by the UK Government. The Group agreed to work with both governments to ensure alignment of bilateral R&D and technology collaboration funding programmes with business priorities.
