Mr Sutanu Ghosh, President, introduced Mr Bruce Bucknell, British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata, who represented the UK in the 13 Indian States of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Assam, Sikkm, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Before taking up his assignment in Kolkata, MrBucknell was Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus from 2012 to 2016. Earlier, he was the Deputy Head of Security in Estates and Security Directorate of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (2009-2011) and Deputy Head of the Joint FCO and Department for International Development’s Sudan Unit (2007-2009). He served as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Madrid from 2003 to 2007, and his previous postings were in Milan (1995-99) and Amman (1988-91). He studied modern history at Durham University, and takes a keen interest in the history of the places he visits.

Mr Bruce Bucknell thanked the Chamber for inviting him over for an interactive session with its Managing Committee. He was aware that there was a business delegation from the Chamber visiting the UK next month. He stated that he would not be speaking too much on the current state of affairs in the UK because far more information was available with all from the English media. MrBucknell’s talk covered the following points.

• There were more than one and a half million people of Indian origin living in the UK and that means a lot insofar as Indo-British relations are concerned which has been good, especially commercial relations. Financial trade between the UK and India has been to the extent of over 16 billion Pounds and investments from the UK has been almost 21 billion Pounds (between 2006 to 2016) to India, followed by 15.6 billion Pounds to Japan, 15.3 billion Pounds to America and 17.7 billion Pounds in Germany. UK-India bilateral investment partnership was very strong, and would get better.

• On the issue of jobs and growth, actually British Companies from former colonial India had increased the number of employees to more than 110000. Acquiring Companies in the UK was also easy.

• The issue of Brexit and the results of the latest general elections in the UK were realities to be faced. In this scenario Britain was committed to widening its economic and diplomatic relations outside EU. There were uncertainties but Britain was confident about the fundamental strengths of UK’s economy and optimistic about the role it would forge by building on its strength as a trading nation.

• UK Export Finance (UKEF) would play a major role in boosting Britain’s international trade. UKEF is UK’s export credit agency which provides export finance and insurance that complements commercial business. It works closely in partnership with UK Trade & Investment and ensures that no viable UK export fails for want of finance or insurance. Export Finance was well recognized by the US, Japan and other international trading nations.

• The International Ease of Doing Business Index of Britain remains higher than the US. It has the lowest Corporate Tax, currently at 19% and was committed to reducing it to 17% by 2020. In Global Innovation it was above the US, for the third year in a row. UK was a very open and welcoming place to do business.

Mr Bruce Bucknell’s talk was followed by a very invigorating round of discussions which covered matters ranging from restoration of direct flights from Kolkata to London, UK’s focus on Kolkata and West Bengal and its various programmes towards development, poverty alleviation and climate mitigation in this part of the country as well as challenges the UK would face post-elections. MrBucknell assured that he would be looking into the prospects of restoration of flights between the UK and Kolkata. He also gave a detailed account of the climate, energy and poverty alleviation programmes that were underway in Kolkata, West Bengal and the Eastern and North Eastern States of the country.