The Chamber was privileged to have Mr. Nick Low, British Deputy High Commissioner, Kolkata, addressing the Managing Committee members at its Meeting on 11th November 2019. The Interactive Session commenced with the President welcoming Mr. Low to the Chamber. This was followed by an introduction of Mr. Nick Low and an audio visual presentation covering the history, heritage and activities of The Chamber.

Mr. Nick Low, the new British Deputy High Commissioner to Kolkata, joined office on 16 October 2019 and represents the UK in the 13 Indian States in the Eastern Region, North East India and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Mr. Low has been a Counsellor at the British Embassy responsible for the United Kingdom's relations with China's Second and Third Tier Cities (2015 to 2019). He was previously the Deputy Head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Crisis Management Department. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Low was the UK's Deputy High Commissioner in Bangladesh. From 2007 to 2010 he led the FCO team developing policy to reinforce the nuclear non-proliferation regime, in particular the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, multilateral approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He has worked in South America (Santiago de Chile and Brasilia) and the Maghreb (Rabat and Algiers) covering a wide range of political, aid, economic, commercial and counter-terrorist work. He was educated at Christ's College Cambridge and Bedford College London.

At the outset, Mr. Nick Low, thanked The Chamber members for inviting him for interacting with the Managing Committee Members. He mentioned that he was hopeful of being in this City for about 3 to 4 years during which time he hoped to interact with members of The Chamber more intensively.

Mr. Suborno Bose, Chairperson of The Chamber's Education Committee requested Mr. Low to speak about the introduction of the Post-Study work visa in the UK. Mr. Low felt that this was a welcome move by UK's friends and partners across the world. The current 2-year post study visa to students will open the door to their career paths. However, he felt that this will go a long way in helping aspirants coming over to the UK which has some of the best universities of the world.

Mr. Aloke Mookherjea, Former President, sought the British Deputy High Commissioner's opinion on the aspects on which India should be careful about in its dealings and bi-lateral relations between India and the UK in view of the impending Brexit. Further, even post-Brexit it was important to understand how the bilateral relationships between India and the UK could be taken forward.

Mr. Low mentioned that what UK was concentrating presently on the global challenges the country may have from progress of the human race - challenges from climate change, microbiological resistance, rebalancing the global economy 10 years after the financial crisis, issues concerning eradication of poverty etc. He felt that none of these bigger challenges can be solved by any country on its own. UK's policy was to have the top ten large economies working together and India should be right in the middle of the ten. Speaking about Brexit, Mr. Low strongly felt that it would never mean United Kingdom turning its back to the world. Not one country in the EU derives a larger proportion of its GDP from foreign trade than what the UK does. UK has no other option but to trade. He felt that as far as relationship with India with Brexit was concerned, he could see bilateral relationship being on the upside. Many Indian Companies were looking to make Investments in the UK. Bilateral trade between the two countries was booming.

Mr. Low spoke about the 'Single Market' concept. Single market was a single market in manufactured goods. It is not a single market in 'Services'. And this had done a great damage to the British economy which now has a structural trade deficit with the European Union. Today the country's trade deficit with the EU alone is 4% of GDP, which in the long-term is not sustainable.

Dr. Rabin Chakraborty, Chairperson, Health Committee, who had spent a considerable period of time in the United Kingdom working as a Consultant there and had returned to India, shared his experience in the healthcare sector in the UK and his experience in working in the same sector in India and sought Mr. Low's views on the subject. He also wanted to set up an exchange programme between UK and India for Trainee Doctors.

Mr. Low thanked Dr. Chakraborty and the entire community of doctors from India for their immense contribution to the National Health Service in the UK. There were 19000 doctors and healthcare professionals of Indian origin or actually from India in the UK. He said that UK takes growth and improvements in the health services very seriously. The country needs to bring in more medical professionals from overseas.

Mr. Subrata Dutta, Chairperson, Sports and Skill Development Committee, requested Mr. Low to speak about the ease of doing business in the UK by Indian entities and how could a Chamber of Commerce facilitate the same.

Having said that the UK was always very high on the ease of doing business index, being among the top 10 countries on this parameter, Mr. Low stated that if anyone wanted to set up a business or go for acquisitions or expansion of business in the UK, they have an end to end service for the same. UK welcomes foreign investments and the country continues to attract foreign investments far more than any other country in the EU.

Dr. Abhijit Sen, Former President of the Chamber, talking about the close ties between the two countries, especially with regard to trade and investment, said that these ties are specially close with The Bengal Chamber of Commerce. He drew Mr. Low's attention to the portraits of several Past Presidents of The Bengal Chamber displayed on the walls of the Hall. He also stated that the very room at which the meeting was being held viz. Williamson Magor Hall, was named after two Past Presidents, Mr. George Williamson and Mr. Richard Magor.

Mr. Low was very happy to acknowledge what Dr Sen had said. He fully agreed that the strong ties between the two countries was visible everywhere be it in sports, cuisine, in popular and classical culture, in medicine, in business, in commerce, in academia, in science and technology of which we are all very proud of. He wanted to build on this and see more UK business coming to India.

Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, President, brought the session to a close by heartily complimenting Mr. Nick Low on his very incisive in-depth analysis of the current realities. On behalf of The Chamber, Mr. Mukherjee expressed his gratitude to Mr. Low for having chosen The Bengal Chamber as the first Chamber that he had visited.