Bangalore: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today (Feb 7, 2004) said jobs were not only moving to countries like India due to outsourcing in a globalised environment, but also generating jobs back home with Indian companies investing in the country.

"About three quarters of Indian investments in the UK are in the knowledge-based sector. Indian IT, biotech and pharmaceutical firms recognised that the UK offers the best place from which to approach the growing European market, which is why 60 per cent of Indian investment in Europe comes to Britain. That investment has created over 1,100 jobs over the last three years," Straw said in Bangalore.

Addressing industry delegates on "Britain and India: A Changing and Prospering Partnership", he said the UK was also India's largest market in Europe for IT services, worth nearly $ one billion a year.

Stating that the recent outsourcing of services to India reflected the advantages this region had to offer, Straw said, "The concentration of service companies here is also part of a wider trend," as the Indian economy grows into an ever more important domestic market in its own right to which service providers want to get close to.

British Government had put in a comprehensive package to support people who have lost jobs to outsourcing.

Pointing out that British papers were silent on the number of jobs created by foreign firms in UK, he said, "Many people in UK are less aware that in 2002, for example, inward investment in the UK financial services sector alone created 5,000 British jobs and it is set to multiply.

"Inward investment is not coming to Britain by accident, but because we have an open, stable economy and a highly skilled workforce; and because we are investing for the future in education, skills, infrastructure and innovation," Straw said.

Pointing that though some call centres were moving abroad, he said many will grow in the UK too and some were even moving back to the UK.

"We already have some 5,500 call centres employing four lakh people. And of course Britain is part of the world's single market in the shape of the European Union, set to grow on May 1 this year to 450 million people," Straw said.

Reiterating that Britain will not practise protectionism, Straw called for greater access in India for British companies. "British firms are allowed greater access to Indian markets in sectors where they are world beating - such as banking, accounting, legal services and insurance," he said, stressing that international accounting and legal services could be opened.

Straw said India and Britain shared common interest in seeing the Doha round of World trade Organisation (WTO) talks reach a liberalising conclusion.

"We have a common interest in avoiding protectionism, for example over steel tariffs. With our long legal traditions, we both want an effective global dispute settlement arrangement," he said.