The UK India Business Council has stressed that Britain’s exit from the European Union will make the country’s engagement with leading economies like India more important to its future and hoped that Indian firms continue to invest in the UK despite uncertainties over its trade ties with the EU.
India had emerged as the third largest source of foreign direct investment for the United Kingdom last year, after United States and France.
“Indian businesses will continue to receive a very warm welcome in Britain, and all of us who believe in India will continue to work for even stronger and closer ties,” the UKIBC said in a statement on Friday evening, hours after the results of the referendum on staying with the EU followed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s resignation.
“The way forward, and timelines to achieve negotiated agreements with the EU and other trade partners, is not yet known. Although we will not know for some time what the UK’s relationship with the EU’s single market will be, we do know that the British economy is fundamentally strong,” the Council noted.
“Undoubtedly the UK will remain a very good place to do business. One of the country’s advantages is that it is the natural home for any Indian business wanting to enter the European market. The economy, as well as language, rule of law, ease of doing business, time zone, and world-leading technical and intellectual innovation, are significant to the UK and Indian economic partnership,” said the UKIBC, which has a significant presence in India and works with several UK investors looking to enter the market.
