Minister clears doubts on IT job opportunities in UK

BANGALORE: The visiting UK minister for e-commerce and competitiveness, Stephen Timms, clarified reports on changes in the UK’s work permit requirements for the IT industry. Offering some reassurance Timms said, "Following a regular review of our shortage occupation list, IT skills have been removed from that list. That means we (Britain) no longer have an overall shortage of IT skills in the UK. But of particular importance to Indian IT companies operating in the UK is that you can still use the intra-company transfer facility to post your own experienced employees to your UK offices exactly as before. I believe there has been some confusion on that point."

According to him, there are about 350 Indian IT companies operating in UK, with 17 new entrants last year creating 400 new IT job opportunities. "The bilateral trade between India and Britian has grown by 67 percent, since the formation in 1993, and is now worth five billion pounds. During the first six months of 2002 the export of goods from the UK to India has already touched a billion pounds and UK imports from Indian over 900 million pounds. The new ten point plan will help us to build up the relationship further."

The Minister brought along a delegation of British companies to participate in Bangalore IT.com, who are specifically looking at opportunities in the Indian market. "The UK is one of the largest cumulative investors in India," he claimed.

In the UK, the software and IT services market grew by 5.4 percent last year to reach $30 billion. It employs over 900,000 people. Growth has been strongest, 17 percent, in outsourcing and processing, accounting for over one third of total market value, closely followed by software services. This has been identified as the areas for Indian companies to win business in UK.

Speaking about Bangalore-IT.Com’s host city, he said, "The reputation of Bangalore is justifiably impressive. I noted that the intelligent community forum, a project of the World Teleport Association, declared Bangalore to be one of the top seven intelligent communities in the world this year. This honour, which was also bestowed on one of the UK’s emerging knowledge centers-Sutherland-recognises the importance of Bangalore to the world’s IT industry."