UK city of Leeds pitches for Indian business

The city of Leeds in northern England is making a play for Indian investments by positioning itself as an ideal partner within the India-UK trade relationship.
A new report, titled 'Unleashing Creative Capacity: Leeds City Region and India', released today by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) and Leeds City Region (LCR) highlights advanced manufacturing, healthcare and digital technology as key areas of collaboration.
Rob Norreys, director of Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, said: "Leeds City Region is uniquely positioned as a partner for India's pace-setting economic growth. Since 2005 we have seen a growth in trade value with India of 93 per cent, and a substantial 145 per cent increase in inward investment from 2013-2014.

"This shows that there is huge potential to build on this growth by capitalising on the natural synergies between the national priorities for India in general, and the identified growth sectors in Bangalore in particular, and Leeds City Region's creative capacity, world-class academic opportunities and industrial expertise.
"We look forward to forging these connections with Bangalore's business and academic leaders as the first step to developing long-term partnerships," he said.
Norreys will be leading the first trade, investment and education delegation from Leeds City Region to India, in Bangalore from February 2 to 4.

LCR claims its status as an "Open Data City" uniquely positions the region as a partner for India to develop its nascent big data and digital delivery sectors.

The report finds that while India - and specifically Bangalore - has built itself as a global brand through its IT industry, big data analytics is only an emerging discipline with huge potential.
"LCR's universities and tech-rich businesses are pivotal in the realisation of this potential," it says.
Arun Narayan, director of the Bangalore UK India Business Council, said "India is now the third-largest source of FDI in the UK and is the leading investor in the UK among the BRICS nations. The UK and India have 300 years of shared history and enjoy linguistic, legal and democratic links which make them natural partners for mutual benefit".

"Leeds City Region has competitive advantages across sectors which offer investment opportunities, as well as access to technology, markets and talent for Indian business".
The report also points out manufacturing exports as a potential growth sector for the region's exports of electrical, renewable energy and metal goods to India.
The nascent Indian technical textile industry is poised to grow from 9 billion pounds now to 21 billion pounds by 2023.
Indian firms are witnessing growth in the niche segment of thermal-resistant textiles and LCR claims specialist expertise in the production of advanced textiles and state-of-art research facilities in the region.

The demand in India for high tech and affordable medical device solutions is also seen as a significant trade opportunities for LCR based firms.