IOD SPECIAL TALKS - Enabling the India-UK Collaboration

Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Afternoon.

It is my great pleasure to join so many senior business, policy and government representatives in the Palace of Westminster today, a fitting location for this afternoon’s Global Business Meet, not just because this fabulous neo-gothic building remains a symbol of democracy around the world, but perhaps more importantly, for today’s purposes, because you are sat just a couple of hundred yards’ away from the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, unveiled in 2015 as a permanent monument to the mutual bonds of friendship enjoyed by the UK and India.

That it stands proudly in such a prominent location for our nation – at the seat of government, and just outside our Supreme Court – will, I hope, convey the extremely high regard in which our special relationship is held in the UK.

My sincere thanks to Baroness Verma for kindly hosting today’s meeting, as well as to Lieutenant-General Surinder Nath for your remarks earlier this afternoon and for all you do as President of the Institute of Directors, India. I should also like to extend my gratitude to the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, who has become a firm friend.

For those who don’t know me, I am Nicholas Lyons, the 694th Lord Mayor of the City of London, the capital’s commercial and cultural hub. I lead the City of London Corporation - the municipal governing body of the Square Mile – and serve as an international ambassador for the UK’s financial and professional services sector. In this role, I was delighted to visit Mumbai and New Delhi in March, where I looked to further advance the partnerships we enjoy meeting with Tata, Hinduja and L&T among others. The trip has been one of the highlights of my year-long term of office and only served to strengthen my faith in the close cultural, linguistic and economic ties that bind our two nations together, and remain immensely fruitful for both.

Our relationship with India has long been a priority for the City of London Corporation, which is working to make it easier for British and Indian firms to do business in each other.

After all, the UK is home to an Indian community around 1.5 million strong. We’re the sixth largest investor in India, with FDI UK investment amounting to £63.9 billion in 2019 and India is the second largest investor in the UK. In total, our investment relationship supports over half a million jobs across our two economies.

In terms of the Square Mile, the London Stock Exchange remains the leading international listing venue for Masala bonds, with 71 issuers having listed on LSE from India since 1995. We therefore have an extremely sturdy foundation upon which to deepen our partnership further still and as we all know, both our nations have expressed a shared ambition to do just that, namely through – we hope – the completion of a free trade agreement very soon.

Our relationship with India has long been a priority for the City of London Corporation, which is working to make it easier for British and Indian firms to do business in each other’s market including via the Corporation’s representative office in Mumbai and the close ties we enjoy with the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog).

In 2019, the City of London Corporation established and with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), remains co-secretariat to the India UK Sustainable Finance Working Group an industry-led work stream co-chaired by HSBC and Macquarie to bring together private sector suppliers of capital to discuss practical actions to increase flows of sustainable finance, particularly into infrastructure. And in June, I was delighted to host the UK India Sustainable Infrastructure Summit at Mansion House, where NITI Aayog’s CEO, Shri B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, was our guest of honour. You will find no greater champion of UK-India relations than the City and I am pleased to say that our Policy Chairman, Chris Hayward, has been building on this work too, with visits to India in July and again just last month.

Private finance and global partnerships can bridge the gap and the City of London can help India to access one of the largest and most diversified global capital pools on the best possible terms

A free trade agreement of the magnitude we all hope to see will take time, and in the City we’re particularly keen to see a focus on lowering trade barriers, professional recognition of qualifications, and securing protection on investments.

Of course, good progress has already been made in other areas, and we welcome the steps being taken by our respective governments to make it easier for people to work, study and live in the UK and India including through the new Scale-up worker visa and the Migration and Mobility partnership.

As we reach the sharp end of the negotiations on a free trade agreement, it is understandable that a great deal of attention will be diverted to ensure we get a deal over the line but the ongoing Economic and Financial Dialogue between India and the UK led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, and India’s Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman is an important reminder of the rich partnership – and extensive work being undertaken by our two nations – outside of the FTA laying the foundation for the relationship between the UK and India’s financial and professional services sectors.

The City of London Corporation is delighted to be leading the infrastructure chapter of the EFD alongside our friends at NITI Aayog where we are collaborating on an initiative – the UK-India Infrastructure Financing Bridge – to help meet India’s infrastructure financing needs. By leveraging the City of London’s expertise in structuring and phasing major infrastructure projects, the partnership seeks to secure long-term investment, particularly through debt financing building diverse investment and financing models that are stable and sustainable, and with manageable risks.

A topic that came up time and again during my travels in India was infrastructure. Earlier this year, India’s population overtook China’s and is expected to be the fastest growing major economy in 2023. Unsurprisingly, India’s energy demand is expected to increase more than any other country in the coming decades and its physical digital infrastructure sector alone needs up to $23 billion by 2025 to meet that challenge.

Thanks to its presidency of the G20, India has momentum. Prime Minister Modi’s Panchamrit commitments made at COP26 outlining India’s journey towards net-zero by 2070 show it has abundant ambition too And anyone doubting India’s ingenuity need only look at its Moon landing this August. But domestic sources of financing alone will not be sufficient to fund the infrastructure it needs, despite the significant financial injections that have so far been committed.

Private finance and global partnerships can bridge that gap and the City of London can help India to access one of the largest and most diversified global capital pools on the best possible terms. Indeed, London is the green capital of the world and has a history of pioneering sustainable finance. The City is a one-stop shop for countries and companies looking for capital and expertise to help them meet their sustainability goals and an international hub that combines scientific excellence, engineering innovation and financial nous – all in one location.

In fact, the UK remains the only place that leads in both conventional and green financial centre rankings. We are also Europe’s leading venture capital market and have the second largest number of firms working to address the climate crisis.

Our offer is simple - we can arrange the capital, accessing pools of assets from around the world. And we can be the trusted partner, working alongside governments to help them shape their medium and long-term programmes.

At a time of increased geopolitical tensions, our two nations continue to pursue a path of cooperation and development working together to tackle some of the biggest global problems and, in doing so, securing economic prosperity for both our nations.

I have found it of great interest listening to your perspectives this afternoon and look forward to exploring ways the UK and India can continue to deepen our partnership.

Thank you.

*Excerpts from the ‘Guest of Honour Address’ delivered by The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor Nicholas Stephen Leland Lyons, Lord Mayor of the City of London, UK at the ‘Opening Session’ of the Global Business Meet - IOD's London Global Convention held on October 19, 2023 in the House of Lords, London.