Warning that the rising economic might of India and China poses a threat to Britain's prosperity, the country's Chancellor of Exchequer Gordon Brown has asked businesses to do more to meet the growing strategic threat to their markets.
The Chancellor highlighted India and China's vast cost advantage over the British industry and vowed to do more to bolster British companies as they fight to retain their grip on key global markets.
Addressing fellow world finance ministers at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington on Sunday, Brown noted that the wage costs of Chinese and Indian companies were 'just 5 per cent of those in the United Kingdom.'
He said Britain could not compete on cost with this new economic challenge by cutting wages and instead must do far more to bolster productivity by boosting the skills of the nation's workforce.
Vowing to use his Pre-Budget Report due in November or December to aid companies in this, he said the report would 'set out the next stage of our long-term policies for equipping the British people with the skills they need to compete in the 21st century.'
Brown's heightened attention to the economic energy of China and India came after China's top economic officials this weekend, for the first time, participated informally in meetings of finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven leading economies, The Times, reported on Monday.
© 2026