Britain to introduce same-day visa services for investors
Mumbai: British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday announced that his country would introduce same-day visa services for investors and said there would be no limit on the number of students from here studying there.
Cameron, who is accompanied by the largest-ever trade delegation, also said India should continue to reduce trade barriers to create better opportunities for British companies.
The British premier also said there are great opportunities for Indian companies to invest in Britain.
“When I see Indian investment into Britain, I only see hope…investment like Jaguar and Land Rover, which is a massive international success story…We welcome that sort of investments,” Cameron said, adding his country seeks to be the most investor-friendly market.
On his second state visit to the country in under three years, Cameron also called for the need to forge greater partnership with India as the British economy is starting to recover from recession.
“The time to forge partnership is now as the British economy has started to recover from difficulties of last two years and the Indian economy powers ahead (to become) one of the great powers,” he said.
The first phase of the project would involve investment in physical infrastructure, such as transport networks, telecommunications and power generation. Later construction would concentrate on social infrastructure such as welfare and education.
India has pushed the building of giant development “corridors” to accelerate the growth of its manufacturing base, which has lagged behind its IT and services industry.
The government has also planned to build 24 new industrial cities along a 1,483 km (920 mile) railway line between New Delhi and Mumbai with Japanese funding, but the project has progressed slowly.
By 2030, if realized, the project could generate close to half a million jobs, while indirect jobs could bring the total in the region to two million, Cameron’s office said.
“Our initial scoping work suggests that accommodating the 3-4 million people attracted to each of the new cities would require close to 1 million new homes, up to 120 schools, 10 colleges and hospitals,” the office said.
