Speaking to newspersons this evening, British Deputy High Commission's first secretary (commercial) Peter McCoy said: "The UK is the largest investor in the country till-date and we hope to improve our association with India further by launching a week-long event from Monday aimed in this direction."

The Indo-British Partnership (IBP) Week, with `Best of British' as its theme, will hold sector specific seminars in Mumbai from November 1-7. These seminars, to be held jointly with Confederation of Indian Industries, will be on healthcare, agrofood, water, environment and automotive components. "There are other areas of interest as well, and we are open on the issue," McCoy said.

The IBP is about generating business, particularly in helping UK and Indian companiesto recognise the opportunities for collaboration as trading, investment and joint ventures. This year, the IBP roadshow in the UK introduced over 1,000 UK companies to the market. Acknowledging the growing autonomy of Indian states IBP has held seminars in states like Tirupur, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Pune, Cochin, Shimla and Ahmedabad. "We are happy with the IBP trade wherein India exports more to the UK," McCoy said.

The latest figures indicate UK imports from India was placed at 858.1 million pounds (down 9.1 per cent from 944.0 million pounds last year) while UK exports to India were placed at 775.2 million pounds (down 24.4 per cent from 1025.6 million pounds last year). McCoy said over 800 joint ventures have been signed since the IBP was launched in 1993 and UK today was the single largest investor since then. Last year the investments were to the tune of $1.2 billion.