I am in India’s corner on trade reforms: Lord Digby Jones
Lord Jones is visiting Mumbai with a focus on its ambition to become a global financial centre.
By Sudeshna Sen, TNN |
LONDON: Lord Digby Jones, Britain’s first-ever dedicated minister for trade and investment, isn’t your usual politician — in fact, he’s no politician at all. He’s one of the high-profile ‘outside experts’ inducted by Gordon Brown government ‘of all talents’ to carry out his agenda for a shake-up in UK’s economic ministries.
The feisty Lord Jones of Birmingham is better known as the outspoken former chief of the Confederation of British Industry — UK’s apex trade body —, a lawyer, an entrepreneur and a consultant in the private sector. Lord Jones is an old-India hand, and he loves the culture: “My first long-haul visit could only be to India,” he tells ET.
He may be a brand new minister, but Lord Jones shows flashes of the plainspeak that once made him a thorn in the side of his current employers. He takes up cudgels supporting India’s stance in WTO on agriculture, “How can I go to Kamal Nath and tell him to open up the financial sector, let us into Mumbai, when he can turn around and say come back and give us something on agriculture?
What cards have you got to play with? Reforms have to be a two-way street. I’m in India’s corner on this one. You’re not going to get countries like Brazil, China and India until US, Japan and EU change on subsidies for agriculture,” he says.
He then points out that London’s become a global financial centre thanks to mass immigration historically — though careful not to disagree with the official Labour Party line on the recent tightening of rules — and distances Britain from the rising anti-globalisation tirade in the EU. He warns against any knee jerk ‘over-regulation’ in London’s financial markets in the wake of the Northern Rock debacle.
He also makes it clear that the British government isn’t concerned with how many Indian companies or country-sovereign funds buy up British brands or icons. “Globalisation is about massive changes in three areas: how goods and services move, how capital moves and people; you are going to have mass migration of peoples,” he says.
“We’ve had mass migration forever. Two centuries ago a lot of the Jews from Eastern Europe migrated from places that were then less pleasant — and set up the base of London’s financial sector — and what happened? We’re world’s number one today.”
He won’t comment about Tata’s bid to acquire Jaguar Land Rover, having been a consultant to Ford himself almost till the last stages. “But if an American company wants to sell to an Indian company, it’s not our business. Government has nothing to do with it. We’ve not even had a meeting about it,’ he says.
He is, however, visiting Tata Motors in Pune, which he calls the ‘Detroit of India,’ and might even meet up with Ratan Tata this trip.
He’s clear that the UK, overall, is an open society and will remain so. “That’s the secret of our success. Some larger EU countries are getting a bit insecure about globalisation,” he says, “but you’ll find Ireland, Scandinavia, and the new accession states agree with us on this.”
Besides the usual meetings with government, Lord Jones is visiting Mumbai with a focus on its ambition to become a global financial centre. “We can use London as a reference, and we have skills in that area, which we want to provide,” he says.
What about the brouhaha over the run on Northern Rock? Is it going to affect London’s open for business position? “I really don’t see how you can regulate against something like that (Northern Rock’s collapse) happening at all. America’s problem is that she’s become an over-regulated financial market. I mean, welcome to capitalism,” he says at a time when the British government, the FSA and the Bank of England are being overwhelmed with demands for more regulatory scrutiny, both by politicians and media.
Lord Jones says that while the global financial markets are still in turbulence, Britain’s economy and financial sector are more than able to take any such shocks. “You wouldn’t have found that even 20 or 40 years ago.”
So how does it feel to be holding the brief for a government which he spent a lot of his previous career criticising? “That’s a fabulous question, and just what I asked Gordon Brown when he offered me this job.
I have a lot of respect for him, though we’ve had arguments in the past. Well, I’ve got a job to do, and when it’s over I just go back to the private sector, and while I’m in this job, I’m loyal to the government and its policies,” he says. But if media reports of even his first few weeks in office is an indicator, don’t expect Lord Digby Jones to be anything but controversial.
The feisty Lord Jones of Birmingham is better known as the outspoken former chief of the Confederation of British Industry — UK’s apex trade body —, a lawyer, an entrepreneur and a consultant in the private sector. Lord Jones is an old-India hand, and he loves the culture: “My first long-haul visit could only be to India,” he tells ET.
He may be a brand new minister, but Lord Jones shows flashes of the plainspeak that once made him a thorn in the side of his current employers. He takes up cudgels supporting India’s stance in WTO on agriculture, “How can I go to Kamal Nath and tell him to open up the financial sector, let us into Mumbai, when he can turn around and say come back and give us something on agriculture?
What cards have you got to play with? Reforms have to be a two-way street. I’m in India’s corner on this one. You’re not going to get countries like Brazil, China and India until US, Japan and EU change on subsidies for agriculture,” he says.
He then points out that London’s become a global financial centre thanks to mass immigration historically — though careful not to disagree with the official Labour Party line on the recent tightening of rules — and distances Britain from the rising anti-globalisation tirade in the EU. He warns against any knee jerk ‘over-regulation’ in London’s financial markets in the wake of the Northern Rock debacle.
He also makes it clear that the British government isn’t concerned with how many Indian companies or country-sovereign funds buy up British brands or icons. “Globalisation is about massive changes in three areas: how goods and services move, how capital moves and people; you are going to have mass migration of peoples,” he says.
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“We’ve had mass migration forever. Two centuries ago a lot of the Jews from Eastern Europe migrated from places that were then less pleasant — and set up the base of London’s financial sector — and what happened? We’re world’s number one today.”
He won’t comment about Tata’s bid to acquire Jaguar Land Rover, having been a consultant to Ford himself almost till the last stages. “But if an American company wants to sell to an Indian company, it’s not our business. Government has nothing to do with it. We’ve not even had a meeting about it,’ he says.
He is, however, visiting Tata Motors in Pune, which he calls the ‘Detroit of India,’ and might even meet up with Ratan Tata this trip.
He’s clear that the UK, overall, is an open society and will remain so. “That’s the secret of our success. Some larger EU countries are getting a bit insecure about globalisation,” he says, “but you’ll find Ireland, Scandinavia, and the new accession states agree with us on this.”
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Besides the usual meetings with government, Lord Jones is visiting Mumbai with a focus on its ambition to become a global financial centre. “We can use London as a reference, and we have skills in that area, which we want to provide,” he says.
What about the brouhaha over the run on Northern Rock? Is it going to affect London’s open for business position? “I really don’t see how you can regulate against something like that (Northern Rock’s collapse) happening at all. America’s problem is that she’s become an over-regulated financial market. I mean, welcome to capitalism,” he says at a time when the British government, the FSA and the Bank of England are being overwhelmed with demands for more regulatory scrutiny, both by politicians and media.
ADVERTISEMENT
Lord Jones says that while the global financial markets are still in turbulence, Britain’s economy and financial sector are more than able to take any such shocks. “You wouldn’t have found that even 20 or 40 years ago.”
So how does it feel to be holding the brief for a government which he spent a lot of his previous career criticising? “That’s a fabulous question, and just what I asked Gordon Brown when he offered me this job.
I have a lot of respect for him, though we’ve had arguments in the past. Well, I’ve got a job to do, and when it’s over I just go back to the private sector, and while I’m in this job, I’m loyal to the government and its policies,” he says. But if media reports of even his first few weeks in office is an indicator, don’t expect Lord Digby Jones to be anything but controversial.
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