Examination of Witnesses (Questions 249-259)
INDO BRITISH
PARTNERSHIP NETWORK
28 FEBRUARY 2006
Q240 Chairman: To try to read between
the lines of what you have said, you think that your added value,
as an organisation, is that you can reach out to those small and
medium-sized businesses and show them how business can be done
in India, that is, talking with the benefit of experience and
understanding?
Mr Bilimoria: Yes. It is creating
awareness for doing business in India, so we have a website that
we have set up. It is an excellent website, we are still developing
it, but even as it stands now it is very informative, and it is
a membership organisation, this is the other aspect of the Indo
British Partnership Network, and it is free to join. We wanted
to keep it accessible and already we have 265 companies that have
joined and within the companies quite often you have more than
one individual who joins as a member, so we have approximately
400 individuals who have joined already in such a short time.
Our website receives huge numbers of hits, I think that was in
the submission as well, so it is getting known, and really it
should be, in many ways, the first point of call for a business
wanting to do business with India. They come to the Indo British
Partnership website and from there they get information, they
can 'phone the Secretariat and they can be pointed in the right
direction and, of course, to UKTI and all the services it offers.
Q241 Chairman: I have one last organisational
question, my colleagues have other points on this and we will
move on to the real subject of our investigation, which is actually
how to do business with India. You said your budget is £70,000-£80,000
a year, with the sponsorship, which is a very small sum of money
indeed, considering the scope of the market, but even that money
largely will dry up in three years' time. How will you be funded
after that, will you be looking for subscriptions, what will happen
then?
Mr Bilimoria: We would like to
keep it as accessible as possible, particularly from the SMEs'
point of view, to be able to join free of charge, but there are
plans being considered to have a tier of members who could be
members who would be sponsoring members. We are getting sponsorship
already, as I said, we have obtained to the value of approximately
£12,000 of sponsorship in our first year alone, for example,
the guide was sponsored by Virgin Atlantic, and increasingly we
will get sponsorship. We are very confident about the funding
part of it. Particularly given that we are not talking about very
large sums of money, I think we are punching well above our weight.
Q242 Chairman: Let us move on to
the bigger question of India itself. This Committee is concerned,
as I said, that British business is not responding as aggressively
as it should be to the opportunities in such a big and fast-growing
economy, and that is one of the things which is driving this inquiry
and led to you being established. Certainly it is reflected in
some of the very disappointing evidence we have received from
British business and representatives of British business, I think
a failure to understand the challenges and opportunities that
there are. Suggest to me what you think are the main opportunities
for UK companies in India; do your sales pitch for me now.
Mr Bilimoria: In many ways, the
Indo British Partnership is the voice of the private sector, it
is the private sector lead for British business with India, and
what we see is that there are huge, huge, huge opportunities and
we are only scratching the surface at the moment. I think British
business is waking up to the opportunities, and thankfully waking
up before it is too late. The opportunities are there, and when
people say "In which sectors would you think there are opportunities
for doing business between Britain and India?" you say, "Well,
actually, yes, there are priority sectors but in just about every
sector there is potential for a British business to operate."
I think, playing on the strengths of Britain, our financial sectors,
the London Stock Exchange, there is a perception in India very
much, when it comes to education or financial markets, of thinking
of the United States as the first priority. Yes, the New York
Stock Exchange is by far the largest stock exchange in the world,
but the London Stock Exchange is by far the most international
stock exchange in the world and in many ways it would be far more
appropriate for Indian companies perhaps than New York Stock Exchange
would be, so it is encouraging Indian companies to list on the
London Stock Exchange. India does not have the equivalent of the
Alternative Investment Market; we have that expertise, the Alternative
Investment Market now is widely considered as one of the leading,
if not the leading, secondary markets in the world, and we have
that expertise, and there is potential for an Alternative Investment
Market in India, and the London Stock Exchange has that expertise
to help India achieve that. It is both ways. In terms of investment
in India, one of the greatest opportunities is for British companies
actually to invest and operate in India, in the way that we at
Cobra Beer are doing. We brew now in five countries around the
world, including in the UK and in Europe, and we started brewing
in India again, after a big gap, a year ago because we see the
Indian market as an enormous opportunity. I think there is the
whole issue of perception and reality, where the perception is
that China is where the manufacturing potential is and China is
where manufacturing exports are the expertise, and India has the
expertise in software, in BPO, in outsourcing, in IT. Yes, of
course, India has that expertise, however people overlook that
India is actually a huge and growing manufacturing base in itself
and has huge expertise and world-class companies, producing world-class
products. For example, the second largest producer of CDs in the
world is Indian. Indian pharmaceutical companies produce world-class
products. The Cobra Beer brewed in India last year was submitted
to the Monde Selection World Quality Awards and won two gold medals
the first time, so India is capable of world-class manufacturing.
The growing middle-class, consuming class, in India, which is
estimated now at up to 300 million people and growing at the population
of The Netherlands every year, is a huge and growing market, and
that is a huge and growing market for British companies. I think
British companies need to go out there and operate over there
and take advantage of this enormous opportunity, and India, of
course, from its side, is very keen on foreign direct investment,
so India would welcome that. It is more than increasing exports
and more than increasing inward investment, it is also about investing
in India and participating and partnering in India's growth.
Q243 Miss Kirkbride: I have to say,
it is a stunning figure that India represents such a small amount
of our international trade, especially given this massive historic
link that the United Kingdom has in India and our own significant
population of Indian extraction. Why do you think that is; because
India was closed for such a long time and that it dropped to nothing
and now it is rebuilding? Why is it right down there at the bottom
of the list of the people we do trade with, given that history?
Mr Bilimoria: I think, firstly,
it is not bottom of the list, it is £6.4 billion. Since the
Indo British Partnership was launched in 1993, the trade between
the two countries showed business investment, both ways, has grown
by over 120%; however, as I have said before, it is still scratching
the surface. I think, primarily, it is a lack of awareness. For
too long now, everyone has been focused on China's growth, which
has been truly impressive and is continuing to grow and there
have been huge opportunities in China, but people have not been
as aware of the opportunities in India. Also, the Indian economic
reform, the momentum was far greater in the early years and then
the pace of the liberalisation reform did slow down. It is only
in the last four or five years that the Indian economic reform
has really taken off. Now I see in India that there is an alignment
between the consumer, who has always wanted liberalisation; business,
which earlier not always wanted liberalisation now wants liberalisation;
and government, regardless of which government is in power in
India, wants liberalisation, so there is that alignment, which
has never been there historically, and there is no turning back.
I think that reform is going to continue, the pace of the reform
is there, the economy is predicted to grow at 8% now, year on
year, they are aiming for double-digit growth, and I think British
business is now waking up to that, so there is a huge awareness-raising
exercise that needs to be carried out. Also, if a company has
never dealt with India, quite often they do not know where to
start, they do not know to whom to talk, and I think there is
a big role to be played by the Indo British Partnership, by UK
Trade and Investment, both here and in India, to help these companies.
There is a superb initiative, which has just been started by UK
Trade and Investment, called the OMIS, the Overseas Market Introduction
Service. It is not the old, standard, if a company wants to do
business with a particular sector in India, when you are in the
automotive sector and you are given just a standard `automotive
sector in India' report, which has been prepared by somebody and
it is given to everyone. This is a tailor-made, bespoke service,
where they will look at your individual company, your requirements
and try to tailor a report that will help you as a company, going
so far as introducing you to the right people in India, and that
is at a nominal cost; these reports start at £400, to £800,
to £1,200 each. I am sure that a lot of businesses do not
know about that service, that it is available, and it needs to
be marketed over here, so there is a huge marketing exercise to
be done.
Q244 Miss Kirkbride: One of the things
that the press say is that the reason why British companies do
less well abroad is because they are more risk-averse than other
countries, the US particularly but other European countries. Do
you think that is part of the psyche of British companies, and
Shai might like to answer this, is that part of what you think
is going on, as to why Britain has not been doing as well in these
emerging markets?
Dr Vyakarnam: If I could pick
up the earlier question and roll the two together, the sectors
of experience of British business in India I think come from the
traditional areas of manufacture, the older industries, if you
like, to what has become the new knowledge-intensive industries.
It has a little bit less experience in that area between India
and Britain of each other, apparently because the Indian diaspora
has been going to America for the last 20-odd years, with the
universities there attracting the top talent. Though there are
people of Indian extraction here, they have not come from the
elite institutions of India, and the numbers are quite large,
something like 100,000 people of Indian and Chinese origin. For
example, in Silicon Valley, a third of the start-ups in hi-tech
were described as "IC start-ups", not integrated circuits
but Indian and Chinese start-ups, so 30 or 40%. You do not have
those sorts of numbers in the clusters around Oxford, Cambridge
and London. That is certainly one aspect. From what I have seen
over the last few years, I think British business has been focused
on the European Union and looking at France, Germany, Italy, and
so on, closer markets, nearer markets. That is understandable;
there is a lot of noise around being part of the EU. There is
the Indian diaspora question, there is the European Union question,
and the third part of it, for me, I think, is that British business
currently is trapped a little bit in its own problems: pensions
problems, companies running out of cash and it just seems more
risky to fly further afield to look for new businesses, so there
are other structural issues of Britain's own making which prevent
the sense of adventure, if you like, which is implied in your
question. It is opening up; there is a huge amount more work to
be done though, at all levels. Awareness-raising needs to be done,
there are barriers of perception as well as barriers of opportunity
and we ought to make the opportunities look more exciting than
the sense of threat posed by the barriers.
Q245 Mr Hoyle: Can I take you on
to trade and investment, and of course we have had witnesses already
before us, we have had a pitch painted, "This is the place
to be; no problem on trade and investment," yet, on the other
hand, we have had other witnesses who say, "Oh, no, it really
is a problem, not only is there a problem with import duties but
also protracted legal cases." What is the real answer? Are
you satisfied that India is fully open for business or do you
think that really there are barriers there?
Mr Bilimoria: The pace of reform
and liberalisation is increasing significantly, and whenever we
have had the opportunity to question them on this the Indian Government
say quite often that they would like the reform to be even faster
than it is, they would like the liberalisation to be even faster
than it is. One has to take into account the practicalities of
a coalition Government with 18 parties in the coalition, and of
one of India's greatest strengths, its enduring democracy and
a federal system with so many different States, all of which are
great strengths of India, but also, in practical terms, a growth
rate of about 8%, given that framework, I think, is superb. With
the reform process the barriers continually are going down, they
are decreasing all the time. However, if you look at the World
Economic Forum, in their Report in 2004 of the most problematic
factors for doing business in India, number one is the inadequate
infrastructure, and it is a serious issue and a serious challenge.
The second one is inefficient bureaucracy, and the licence raj,
although it is diminishing, is still very much there; and the
third is corruption. There are other barriers as well. The reality
is that despite all the barriers the opportunities are there and
India is well aware of these challenges, India is trying to address
the challenges. Personally, I express the challenges in three
tiers. The first is the ground-level work: the health, the education
challenges, and the latest Budget, which has come out just today
in India, again, increased spending going into health and education.
The second tier is of the infrastructure. In communications, India
has made huge strides in telecommunications, for example, and
that is increasing really very significantly. Of course, a third
tier is the free market and having a genuinely free market, and
Indian tariffs are still relatively high. We are not talking about
extreme items, like Scotch whisky, where the import duties are
between 400 to 500%, on the whole, tariffs have been coming down,
generally speaking, but still need to go down much further. In
India, in terms of being a genuinely free market, it still has
a long way to go compared with, say, a country like ours, which
I believe is one of the freest markets in the world and is one
of Britain's greatest strengths.
Q246 Mr Hoyle: Are there any barriers
which affect UK investment, in particular, that there is a disadvantage
to the UK investors compared with, say, Indian investors in their
own companies, or non-Indian companies? Are there any trade barriers
which differ from country to country?
Mr Bilimoria: We never look upon
it that there is any difference between the UK and any other country.
Yes, quite often, within India, it is a different matter, when
you talk about Indian companies within India, and of course you
have got all the investment limits in so many sectors as well,
that really is a barrier to investment, in the insurance sector,
for example, in banking. In my own industry, to get the Foreign
Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to invest in India
it took us three years, but, on the other hand, in the Cabinet
meeting in January, they have just freed it up, completely. It
took us three years but, ironically, actually it was freed up
for everyone, so steps are being taken, areas are being freed
up, one by one.
Q247 Mr Hoyle: Besides being a pathfinder
for the companies, and obviously three years of pressure and they
all ought to thank you afterwards, are there any areas within
India, businesses that the Government say are taboo, "We
will not allow any foreign investment to come in; these are protected"?
If so, what are they: could it be energy?
Dr Vyakarnam: I think there are
limits to energy and some limits to the pharmaceuticals, some
limits to retailing, I think.
Q248 Mr Hoyle: Can I get it right:
pharmaceuticals, retailing, energy?
Dr Vyakarnam: The pharmaceutical
area is affected by the pricing, because the Indian Government
wishes to regulate pricing on pharmaceuticals, which makes it
a little bit less attractive for Indian companies to invest in
R&D, for instance, price caps in certain areas of drugs, and
so forth, because it has a huge impact on a very large population
of poor people. The retail sector, although it is freeing up with
certain brand names in the cities, large-scale retailing would
affect, again, a large proportion of poor people, and micro-retailing
which takes place, from hand-carts, and so forth, so there are
worries about that. Again, as Karan Bilimoria said, there are
coalition parties in place, so it is domestic politics being balanced
against free trade agendas. I think, on the whole, it is moving
forward.
Q249 Mr Hoyle: It is not open to
Tesco yet?
Dr Vyakarnam: Not yet.
Mr Bilimoria: Single-brand retailing
has just been opened up, and it has only just been announced that
51% ownership can take place in single-brand retailing, so it
is only a matter of time, in my personal view, before retailing
as such opens up in India. Another area, for example, legal services,
at the moment foreign law firms are not allowed to practise in
India. That is something we have been talking to the Indian Government
about, saying very seriously that the perceived concern in India
is that the advocates, the Indian Bar Association, are concerned
about British barristers possibly practising in Indian courts,
whereas actually what we are looking for, from Britain's point
of view, is to allow advisory work from lawyers, mergers and acquisitions
work, business advice work, corporate finance work, which would
help Indian companies, particularly as Indian companies increasingly
are getting more global. It is to Indian companies' advantage
to have the expertise of foreign law firms there, and of course
possibly one would have an agreement where it was said that barristers
would not practise in Indian courts. The advocacy can stay in
India; it is the advisory work that will be beneficial to both
countries. There is a dialogue going on, and again this is the
benefit of the private sector and the Government working together,
because we have working groups within JETCO which address these
issues, address the barriers. I think JETCO is a very good initiative
in addressing the barriers, once a year in a formal meeting, where
the Government and the private sector sit together round the table,
put the barriers and challenges on the table and have an action
plan. That is followed up by Indo British Partnership Network
meetings; at every single meeting we touch on the JETCO action
points and we touch on the working groups, and most of the working
groups actually are members, are from the Indo British Partnership
Network.
Q250 Mr Hoyle: Maybe we have just
found out part of the reason why we are not seeing a lot of UK
investment out there. I think the worry is that, what are our
strengths—legal, retailing, energy, pharmaceuticals, in
which we are the leader—the reason we are not doing very
well is because actually you have got barriers to what we are
good at in the UK. Maybe that is part of the problem; maybe we
have got to see it coming a lot quicker if really we are going
to increase trade, because it is where all the expertise is that
you are blocking us.
Mr Bilimoria: Actually there are
so many areas that are open and that are relatively open. Even
in energy, there is a huge requirement for energy capacity to
increase in India and British firms can play a part there. On
the other hand, we have also got to be proactive and we have got
to compete. Where the airports are concerned, there are two airports
recently that have been put out to tender; sadly, British companies
are not winners of those, as things stand.
Q251 Mr Hoyle: I think we are missing
something. You have got many things that we can tender for; you
may be buying cars but the UK is not exactly the world leader
any more. Where I think we are the best in the world is in legal
services, pharmaceuticals, retailing; whatever people's views
might be of Tesco they are a brand leader throughout the world.
All I am saying is that we cannot penetrate the areas we are good
at because there are still barriers there. What we need to see
is those barriers removed to increase the UK presence in India.
Dr Vyakarnam: I think there is
another view on this. One of the JETCO delegations is a hi-tech
JETCO delegation, and there is a great deal of potential on both
sides for a rethinking of this in terms of co-development. India
is growing its knowledge base enormously in the university sector,
it is growing its R&D base, the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research has something like 26 major laboratories in
India, it is committed to science to grow. I hope you get to visit
it. The head of that is Dr Mashelkar FRS, so strong links with
the UK would be beneficial. They are moving forward at a tremendous
pace. The UK has a good innovation knowledge base in the Russell
Group of universities and the innovation with industry (in India)
is not that great. It has got a great demand for ICT, the biotech
sectors, and there are absolutely no barriers whatsoever in that
environment, either from India or even from the UK itself. There
are certain sectors in which Britain may be constrained, like
the European Space Agency taking the decision, for example, that
all European satellites will launch on European rockets in future,
and therefore preventing our British small businesses getting
in there, perhaps launching from India and taking advantage of
the cost base. There are other forms of biotechnology research
that could be done on a co-development basis between the UK and
India, so I think there are other possibilities. We should not
get caught up in just four or five anecdotes as examples of where
there are barriers.
Mr Bilimoria: We are: our expertise
in telecoms, Vodafone has invested in Bharti telecom and Airtel
in India. This is the whole thing, these barriers are there but
in spite of these barriers there are tremendous opportunities,
and these barriers are coming down all the time and I can give
you several examples of this.
Q252 Mr Hoyle: I think we can both
agree that the quicker the barriers are removed the quicker the
investment can come.
Mr Bilimoria: Certainly it would
help the investment to flood in. For example, if India became
a completely free market tomorrow, it would make a significant
difference.
Chairman: Dr Vyakarnam's answer happily
leads us to Peter Bone's question.
Q253 Mr Bone: Indeed, and I wish,
many years ago, when I was in manufacturing, your organisation
was in existence because, being a medium-sized company, it would
have been extremely useful to us. You were talking about the European
Union and effectively trade barriers, you were talking about India
having high tariffs, but equally when we talk to the Indian Government
they say, "Hang on a minute, the reason we have got that
is because the European Union has not been playing ball with us
and why should we open up our markets if the EU won't open theirs
up?" I have a lot of sympathy with that point of view. I
just wonder whether, in fact, we are being held back, when we
talk about Indian and British trade, by the fact that the EU is
doing what it is doing?
Mr Bilimoria: In the WTO talks,
one of the greatest challenges is agriculture, and on that score
I know that, from Britain's point of view, our view is as a country
that we want to be completely open, we want there to be a level
playing-field, but I perceive that they are restricted from the
European Union. However, what I say continually is that, whatever
the issues with agriculture, yes, it is a bargaining position
where the WTO talks are concerned, and, yes, it is something that
I feel is completely unjust and unfair. However, that should not
hold up the opening up of and the tremendous potential in goods
and services and manufacturing and investment both ways. I think
the encouraging thing is that, regardless of agriculture, progress
is being made in these areas.
Q254 Mr Bone: I think that is true.
If you woke up in business one day and there was not a barrier
or a problem you would think something was wrong, because there
always are, but how could the British and Indian Governments move
the situation forward so that perhaps the investment between the
two countries could be improved? If you had the opportunity, what
would be the one thing you would like to see them do?
Dr Vyakarnam: If there were a
silver bullet, I guess it would be for Britain to leave the EU!
Q255 Mr Bone: I think we have very
good witnesses today, Mr Chairman!
Dr Vyakarnam: That is a personal
view, and there is no silver bullet. We have to work within the
framework of multilateral discussions. What I sense is that both
Kamal Nath and the ministers here, Alan Johnson and Ian Pearson,
are working hard, trying to get the dialogue going and open up,
looking at the note in the Doha Agreement, and so on, and it is
clear that everybody has to try to work within the framework of
the WTO as best we can. There is another layer of agreements and
needs within the European Union, so I do not believe in silver
bullets necessarily!
Mr Bilimoria: One of Britain's
greatest strengths is that we are an open economy, we are a free
market and I think that is why, to this day, we attract huge amounts
of foreign investment. Quite often we are the gateway to Europe
for many countries. I think my dream scenario is that India becomes
a completely free and open market, and it is moving in that direction,
it has a long way to go but that would be my dream scenario.
Q256 Chairman: If the French and
the Luxembourg Governments spend the whole time telling Mr Mittal
that his investment is not wanted and that we will be protectionist,
if you like, to keep India out of the European Union, what kind
of message does that send back to the Indian business people who
are being told by their own Government that they must liberalise?
Dr Vyakarnam: It does not help.
Mr Bilimoria: I think, where Britain
is concerned, we have not been sending out those sorts of messages
and I think as long as Britain continues to maintain its open
stance, if I may move that on to a point that I would like to
emphasise. There is a huge exercise here in Britain to raise the
awareness with British business, particularly SMEs, of doing business
with India and in India. There is also a huge exercise to be done
within India of raising the awareness within Indian business to
do business in and with Britain. There are lots of perception
issues. There is this whole perception and reality issue in India
as well which is being addressed through the public diplomacy
campaign, which has been explained to you earlier on, where we
are promoting Britain in India, not just in business but in culture
and education and science and technology, and I think that is
a very important exercise. To that extent, there is not a mirror
of the Indo British Partnership Network in India. UK Trade and
Investment have their commercial officers placed within Deputy
High Commissions and the High Commission in Delhi, but there is
not a Network, there is not a membership organisation for Indian
businesses to join, the equivalent of the IBPN, focused on doing
business with Britain in India, and I think there is potential
to organise that sort of organisation.
Chairman: Roger Berry and I were in Belfast
yesterday seeing a major investment in call centres in Northern
Ireland, which is counterintuitive, to say the least, and very
successful, by HCL.
Q257 Roger Berry: You have referred
to the fact that there are opportunities as well as barriers,
but obviously, in some sense, some of the barriers represent opportunities
for British investment. The infrastructure, as you rightly said,
is the number one problem, certainly as the World Economic Forum
identifies it, but presumably that would represent an enormous
opportunity for UK companies: are they rising to the challenge?
Dr Vyakarnam: I think it is beginning.
The signs are there and I think it could be strengthened, is the
impression I have. We had an architect on a visit recently to
Kolkata who won some work with a company there called Pantaloon
to redo a huge shopping complex, and being sensitive to the architecture,
the heritage of Calcutta, or Kolkata. And these are happening.
I can think of one or two other major expansion plans, Arup, I
think, at Hyderabad Airport.
Mr Bilimoria: This is where the
Indo British Partnership Network is already making a difference.
For example, the business delegation which accompanied Ian Pearson,
the British Minister for Trade, in January to India was made up
of predominantly Board members of the Indo British Partnership
Network and from all accounts was a highly successful trade mission,
we have had excellent feedback all round. One of the great accomplishments
of this mission was that one of Britain's best-known architects
of shopping centres and malls, who designed Bluewater and the
Bull Ring in Birmingham, both hugely successful, won two major
contracts, for the largest shopping mall, I think, to be built
in India, in Mumbai, and also a shopping mall in Calcutta. There
are a number of ways in which the IBPN private sector can make
a difference.
Q258 Roger Berry: Given that the
UK does have major construction companies, and you have mentioned
the issue about the new airports, there is a question of docks,
there is a question of buildings, the whole infrastructure, the
whole construction industry, given that the UK has some international
companies of great repute, is the problem that they are putting
in bids for work in India, the airport example you gave, I think,
and just not being competitive enough, or is it that they are
not putting enough work in that direction and they are not bidding
for contracts in India sufficiently vigorously?
Mr Bilimoria: There are examples
of huge successes that have taken place as well. One example that
we saw on the ground last year was P&O and the port that they
set up, a container terminal, in India, which was set up in five
years from scratch. With all the bureaucracy barriers, with all
of the infrastructure barriers, they set themselves a target of
achieving the maximum capacity of 600,000 containers a year. Within
five years, when we visited them last year, they were at 1.3 million,
they had more than doubled the final capacity they were hoping
ever to reach within five years, and that was with rail infrastructure
barriers, depth infrastructure barriers in the harbour, access
to the terminal infrastructure barriers, despite all that they
were achieving double their final target. This is the whole aspect
of India, this is the message that needs to get across to British
companies, that, yes, the barriers are there, yes, they are coming
down, but, yes, the opportunities are there.
Q259 Rob Marris: You talked about
the delegation led by Ian Pearson, which, broadly, but not wholly,
I am sure, comprised Board members from the IBPN. Looking at your
list of Board members, I do not know all the organisations on
there but I am familiar with some of them and some of their names
look to be fairly self-explanatory, but there do not appear to
be any major transport companies or construction companies or
manufacturing companies. If that is the case, it seems to me there
is an imbalance in your Board, in terms of what you were just
talking about to Roger Berry. Is that something that you need
to address or am I misunderstanding what you are doing?
Mr Bilimoria: We would welcome
people from a variety of different sectors but have put a limit
at this stage on the number of Board members to make our meetings
effective and also to have strong participation, and we do have
excellent participation at our meetings. Yes, as time moves on,
we will bring in people from other sectors, but there is no deliberate
exclusion of any sector at all. I think we do have a wide variety
there of sectors and expertise but certainly we are open to taking
on more in the future.
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