U.K. to Partner for Developing GIFT City

United Kingdom has entered into a strategic partnership to develop India’s fledgling international financial services centre GIFT City, and agreed to set up a new Fund of Funds to be managed by the State Bank of India group in order to route U.K.’s future capital investments into India. India and U.K. also signed off on a new infrastructure finance and policy partnership to help India execute its National Infrastructure Pipeline that envisages investments worth $1.4 trillion, at the tenth Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) between the two countries steered by U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday. Under the infrastructure partnership, the UK will support India’s infrastructure pipeline by sharing experience, knowledge exchange and technical assistance to support India’s National Infrastructure Pipeline, including setting up a Project Preparation Support Facility-cum-Centre of Excellence for PPP Projects. To mobilise private capital for green investment, a new U.K.-India Sustainable Finance Forum is also being established. Welcoming India’s move to allow 100% tax exemptions for sovereign wealth funds investing in infrastructure, the U.K. Chancellor termed it a positive for their government’s development capital investments in India and the CDC Group, which has £1.23 billion invested in more than 300 Indian companies. Stressing that a bilateral partnership driven by ‘U.K.’s deep capital markets and India’s extraordinary economic dynamism’ can help show the way ahead for a global recovery, Sunak said: “We have been able to announce a series of ambitious initiatives across trade, infrastructure, sustainable finance and research. This includes a new strategic partnership to develop the GIFT city, a tremendous opportunity to drive international capital flow from the city of London to India.”