UK not opposed to outsourcing

UK Secretary for Trade and Industry Alan Johnson said he strongly supported India's outsourcing prowess and was against interventionist measures to stop it.

"Responding to globalisation by putting up barriers is short-sighted, ineffective and ultimately damaging for consumers, and particularly for business and industry," Johnson said at a meeting organised by the CII.

He pointed out that outsourcing could and should bring benefits to both countries. "Whether it is UK firms outsourcing to India or vice versa, offshoring make companies more efficient and give them access to new markets. At the same time, it creates jobs and wealth for local communities," he said.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said both countries felt that the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee, apart from being an institutional mechanism to review the status of bilateral trade, must also deliver results and should further Indo-UK partnership.

Johnson later called on Finance Minister P Chidambaram. He discussed banking and financial sector policies in India.

Chidambaram pointed out that the policies in the banking and financial sectors allowed ample opportunity to foreign banks to grow in India, both organically and inorganically, according to official release.

Chidambaram also said developed and the G-8 countries needed to put pressure on oil producing countries to check the long term damage to world economy.

"Resources of developing nations are being diverted from achieving Millennium Development Goals to higher prices for oil," Chidambaram said.