London: India has become the preferred global hub for software development and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and UK has benefited substantially from tie-ups with Indian IT enterprises, Mike O'Brien, British Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Office has said.

"UK companies realise the benefits of outsourcing from India, which has become the preferred global hub for software development and Business Process Outsourcing," O'Brien said in his Key note address at a one-day joint Symposium on "International Business Perspectives of India: 2003 and Beyond."

O'Brien said tie-ups between the UK and Indian IT enterprises lend the former substantial benefits "Not only in terms of lower costs, but also in the quality and speed of marketing, as well as helping to build new businesses."

Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), London Stock Exchange and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the Symposium attended by leading industrialists from India and the UK on June 30.

Prominent speakers at the Symposium included Rahul Bajaj, Co-Chair, CBC, and Chairman, Bajaj Autos, Anand Mahindra, President, CII, N K Singh, member, Planning Commission, N A Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys, Udayan Bose, Chairman, Lazard India and Richard Heald, Joint CEO, ABN AMRO Rothschild.

O'Brien said there have been skill shortages in the UK and Europe in the IT sector and many have been filled by highly educated Indian professions.

"It is in both our interests that they should be able to obtain work permits here," he said, adding that the latest Home Office figures indicated that, with more than 22,000 work-permits issued to people of Indian nationalities in 2001-2002 - 60 per cent of them to IT professionals - India topped the list of countries from where skilled manpower came into UK.

And in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) context, he said India has strong interests in obtaining secure long-term access for such professionals through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) "Mode 4" on the temporary movement of persons.

Stating that the EC's (European Commission) recent GATS offer was a good one for countries like India, O'Brien said, "It covers intra-corporate transferees, business visitors and contractual service suppliers in no fewer than 22 service sectors."

It would allow those on specific contracts to stay for up to a year, while in eight sectors there was an offer of greater access for self-employed independent professionals.

"We look forward to seeing the Indian offer soon," he said.

Recalling Prime Minister Tony Blair's recent statement that world trade was the biggest issue faced by the two countries in the next six months, O'Brien said, "We have a mutual interest in ensuring that the current trade round, the Doha Development Agenda, opened new markets and reduced barriers in other parts of the world to exports from both our countries - and also in services.

PTI