Lord Willetts
Main Page: Lord Willetts (Conservative - Life peer)(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Mark Field
If the right hon. Gentleman does not mind, I will not give way, because other Members wish to speak.
There is a lot of doom and gloom at the moment. We have seen today that our economy has contracted by 0.2% in the past three months, which I suspect may be the precursor to a fully fledged recession in this country in the next few months. Clearly, there are major problems in the eurozone market, which are not going to go away any time soon. In fact, I fear that they will be there for a long time to come, because there is not the political will to drive forward. As a result, it is perhaps easy to be gloomy about the economic situation. One of the interesting things about the IMF report yesterday was that it was presented as being very negative, but even the most pessimistic scenario suggested that there would be global growth of 3.3% next year. Indeed, some 4% was suggested during 2011.
In a conversation with one of the two Chinese law firms that have opened in London in the past couple of years I mentioned the global economic recession. A partner, who was a Chinese native with perfect English, smiled and said, “Back home, we call it the north Atlantic crisis”. There is a very important lesson for us to learn. Amid all that doom and gloom, let us get out there and recognise that we have great strengths.
In relation to India, some of the important issues have already been mentioned. We clearly have some good connections on the manufacturing side, especially in the technology and bio-technology sphere. There is much that India can teach us. Nehru has that legacy of those five great technology universities that remain a great success.
The Minister has done a phenomenal amount of work in this area in often difficult circumstances. Privately, he knows that I do not entirely support our immigration policy and I suspect that, behind closed doors, he has some sympathy with my views. We need to be a beacon for the brightest and the best. We must encourage young Indian, South Korean and Chinese people to come to this country. If they spend two or three years as students here, they will be ambassadors for this country for the rest of their lives. I am afraid that our policy on the headline figures is wrong. [Interruption.] I do not wish totally to eliminate the Minister’s career, and I am sure that he has a few words to say.
The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)
I completely support the policies of the Government of which I am a Member. There is no numerical limit on the number of overseas students coming to study in Britain, provided that they have the proper qualifications and they are going to attend a legitimate higher education institution.
Mark Field
I do understand that. Will the Minister also recognise, though, that the message is that this country is not entirely open to those brightest and best people? We must have a message that we are open not only for business but for the brightest and best to come to this country.
The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)
This has been an excellent debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) on calling for it and on opening it so effectively.
The Government absolutely recognise that trade between Britain and India is vital as we seek to rebuild and rebalance our economy at home. We are committed to ensuring both that the UK remains a top destination for foreign direct investment and that our businesses engage properly with high-growth emerging markets. As several hon. Members have said, there can be no better example of a high-growth emerging market than India. My hon. Friend put it particularly well when he said that we should not be complacent, because contracts are not won but worked for. We should all remember that motto.
The British Government are therefore committed to making our relationship with India broader and deeper, and that certainly includes the trade area. That commitment was clear in the Prime Minister’s decision that his first major overseas visit should be to India, with a delegation of Ministers, including me, and senior business figures. The Prime Minister has made it clear to us that that was not a one-off but part of a process of continuing engagement with India. Indeed, I have been back on two further missions since then involving trade, universities and research.
I welcome the intervention by my hon. Friend the Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes). She mentioned the Solent India Business Network and the university of Southampton. I can report to the House that I took with me a gift for my Indian opposite number. I remembered that the university of Southampton, as my hon. Friend knows, holds the archive of the Mountbatten papers, including the papers from the negotiations with Gandhi on Indian independence. We politicians are sometimes accused of writing our ideas on the backs of envelopes. The archive includes documents from the period when Gandhi was negotiating with Mountbatten. He had made a vow of silence, so he was not speaking directly to Mountbatten, and I can report that he did indeed write his proposal for the future of India on the back of used envelopes. I took copies to give to my Indian opposite number.
We have historic ties, but this debate has rightly focused on our trade relationship. The British Government are clear that we aim to double trade with India by 2015. That is our objective. To achieve it, we must offer more help to small and medium-sized enterprises to export. We still have an insufficient number of SMEs in the export business. We must help our companies win major, high-value contracts. We need to attract much-needed inward investment, which builds trade links, and to build strategic relationships with key companies. The hon. Member for Solihull (Lorely Burt) made an effective case. We recognise fully that Jaguar Land Rover is a classic example of a key company.
We focus on India not just because we understand its high growth prospects in the abstract but because we have analysed particular sectors where we can see that growth happening. India plans to spend $1 trillion over the next five years on improving its infrastructure. That is a market. It is expected to be the world’s third largest car market by 2020; that is another crucial opportunity. Its health care market is expected to triple to $150 billion by 2017.
Several hon. Members have mentioned my particular responsibilities. The Indian Government have plans for 40 million extra university places and for 500 million more people to receive vocational training over the next 12 years. When I have had discussions with Kapil Sibal and other Indian Ministers, they have recognised fully that to achieve those extraordinary ambitions, they must work with others. Who better to help them than Britain, given our strengths in education and vocational training?
Mr Willetts
The British Government have a shared view, to which, of course, all Departments subscribe. Included in that, as I said, is the fact that there is no limit on the number of suitably qualified foreign students who can come to legitimate universities. However, I fully accept the challenge of communicating that effectively, given how the policy has sometimes been reported, not least in the Indian media. One reason why I have paid visits to India is to communicate as clearly as I can that there is no numerical limit on legitimate students coming to legitimate higher education institutions.
Mr Willetts
I am terribly sorry, but I have only five minutes left, and I have several other issues to touch on.
One issue raised by several Members involves the problems that a number of UK companies have experienced obtaining payment for goods and services provided during the Commonwealth games. Some UK companies, most notably SIS LIVE, are alleged to have been involved in instances of bribery, which they have strenuously denied. Several hon. Members have vouched for those companies in this debate. All those cases are being examined by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation. Until that work is complete, we doubt that any resolution of the matter is possible. All the Commonwealth games cases have been handed over to a group of Indian Ministers, who will decide what needs to be done.
I assure hon. Members who have raised the matter that the British Government are energetically pursuing the concerns of British companies with the Indian Government. The high commissioner met the Indian Secretary for Home Affairs and followed up with a letter. Our Prime Minister has written to Prime Minister Singh about the outstanding payments, and Ministers and officials are working to resolve the outstanding issues. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport has written to his Indian counterpart, the Minister for Sport, requesting that the investigation be expedited as quickly as possible. We remain very much engaged with the issue.
Mr Willetts
I apologise, but it has been a crowded debate. We understand the arguments made by my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) for more debates on these issues.
I was asked about the EU-India free trade agreement, including by the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright). The UK has been one of the strongest supporters of the FTA since negotiations started. We believe that there is now a genuine prospect of concluding an ambitious agreement this year that will deliver significant benefits to UK business, with a potential value of £2 billion over 10 years. We now look forward to the EU-India summit in February, to which several Members have referred, and hope that progress will be made there.
We have made it clear throughout the negotiations that in order to conclude an agreement, it is essential for India to open up markets in key areas such as services, wines and spirits and the automotive sector, which the hon. Member for Solihull mentioned. India’s implementation of reform in single-brand retail is a positive sign, but we need more progress on services including multi-brand retail, banking and insurance.
Some Members asked what that will mean for migration. We expect the chapter on international trading services in the FTA to include provisions on the temporary movement of highly skilled professionals from India to the UK and from the UK to India. We recognise that a key element of the UK’s offer in trade negotiations is its willingness to admit temporarily to the EU highly skilled professionals under mode 4. However, any such measure must be consistent with our commitment to limit levels of economic migration to the UK. We expect the outcome of the negotiation with India to allow for the operation of minimum salary thresholds and wage parity testing. The Government are strongly committed to policy in that area.
In conclusion, the British Government absolutely agree with hon. Members from all parties about the importance of our relationship with India. That is why the Foreign Secretary has announced the expansion of our network across India, creating 30 new positions. It is a truly cross-Government effort. Our relationship is much wider than trade and investment; we co-operate closely with India on education, science and research. The UK India Education and Research Initiative has now reached a scale of £90 million, and I have launched improved research collaboration with India. We are also researching and working together on climate change and development. We have an increasing defence and security relationship, and we are working with India on international issues.
Despite the global downturn, India continues to enjoy rates of growth that are the envy of Europe and the US, with the north Atlantic problem to which an hon. Member referred. We will continue to work across Government and with the private sector, universities and our Indian friends. We want more UK companies to do business in India, and we welcome those opportunities.