Chennai: British Business Group, a forum to promote and foster trade between United Kingdom and India with an emphasis on promotion of activities and interests of British companies in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, is being formed in Chennai.

There are around 100 Indo-UK collaborations in Tamil Nadu alone, the highest number in any state in South India, John Dennis, director of Trade and Investment Promotion, British High Commission, New Delhi, told reporters on November 27, adding that the group would be formally launched within a week.

He said that IT, telecom and environmental industries were among the priority areas of UK's business interests in India.

Dennis said that as of now there were about 1750 Indo-UK joint ventures operating in India and about 350 such JVs in UK, adding that at least 275 of these JVs in Britain were in the IT sector.

On a cumulative basis, British investment in India over the years had grown to touch 3 billion British Pounds as of now, he said, adding that UK-India bilateral trade of goods and services had grown by 67 per cent from 5 billion Pounds in 1993 when the Indo-British Partnership (IBP) was formed.

UK, he said, was India's second largest trading partner after USA and accounted for five per cent of India's total foreign trade in goods in 2001-02.

During the first six months of 2002, exports of goods from UK to India had already touched 999.5 million Pounds and UK imports from India had reached 931.2 million, he added.

PTI