COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Political instability will not hurt investments, says Lord Paul

British business ambassador Lord Swraj Paul said the present political instability in India would not affect the flow of foreign investment as the world had faith in the country's democracy.

Lord Paul told a press conference in Calcutta on Tuesday that what was happening in the country was only a temporary phenomenon and "nobody in the world is worried whether there is a change of government or not."

Lord Paul, a noted industrialist and chairman of the United Kingdom-based Caparo Group, was making his first visit to the city after being nominated one of the first British business ambassadors last month. He said that investors, looking 30 years ahead, were certain about the resilience of Indian democracy and knew there was no way of stopping the economic reforms process in the country.

Lord Paul asserted that irrespective of which government came to power at the Centre, India had no other option but to cling to the path of economic reforms after arriving at where it is now now.

He, however, said India needed reforms at a much faster rate since "the more slow a country is, the more harm it will be doing to itself."

The India-born British citizen, who was accompanied by British Deputy High Commissioner for Eastern India Simon Scaddan, also sounded an alert against the private monopoly business which, he said, was more dangerous than the public sector monopoly.

Unless there was a strong regulatory body for the private monopoly business, there could be a lot of abuses, spoiling the benefits of liberalisation, he said.

Asked whether economic reforms in India were going the right way, Lord Paul said benefits of the policy must trickle down to the lower starts of society as the ultimate purpose was to improve the lot of the common people.

Lord Paul said despite the political uncertainties, the UK investment in India, which had shot to Rs 28.69 billion up to July this year from Rs 1.18 billion in 1992 reflected the UK's confidence in India's long-term potential. Altogether 800 new joint ventures had taken place between 1993 and 1996.

As for Indian investment in the UK, Indian companies today had 106 wholly-owned subsidiaries and 62 joint ventures in the UK, he added.

He said over the past four years, Indo-British trade had grown considerably, taking the balance to more equal terms. While UK exports to India increased to Rs 72.65 billion up to September 1997 from Rs 40.19 billion in 1992, whereas Indian exports to the UK rose to Rs 71.21 billion from Rs 36.65 billion the same period, Lord Paul pointed out.

EARLIER INTERVIEW:
Indian reforms have failed, says Lord Paul
UNI