Cameron calls for more jobs in Britain, India through trade (1st Lead)

Jul 28, 2010, 11:14 GMT

New Delhi - British Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday began a two-day visit to India aimed at boosting trade and business ties to help Britain's economic recovery.

'This is a trade mission, yes, but I prefer to see it as my jobs mission,' Cameron said at the headquarters of leading Indian information technology company Infosys Technologies Ltd in the southern city of Bangalore.

Cameron's government, tackling Britain's highest-ever peacetime deficit, has been going all out to attract foreign investment as the country moves slowly out of recession.

'Indian companies employ 90,000 people in the UK. Many more jobs in Britain exist thanks to activities of British companies in India,' Cameron said.

'Now I want to see thousands more jobs created in Britain and of course in India through trade in the months and years ahead. That is the core purpose of my visit.'

Cameron's trip to India is his first to an Asian country as prime minister. He is accompanied by a 90-member delegation of cabinet ministers and business heads including British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne.

'This country has the whole world beating a path to its door,' Cameron wrote in an article in the Hindu newspaper Wednesday. 'I understand that Britain cannot rely on sentiment and shared history for a place in India's future.'

The prime minister said he would be discussing trade and investment, education initiatives, cooperation on climate change as well as global security - particularly with regards to Afghanistan and Pakistan - during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi Thursday.

Cameron is scheduled to fly to the Indian capital later Wednesday after a visit to the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore, which manufactures trainer jets under licence from the British defence group BAE Systems.

Business Secretary Vince Cable also announced in Bangalore Wednesday that Britain would permit exports of civil nuclear technology and expertise to India for the first time.

The sales had traditionally been opposed by the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence because India is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.