Date:24/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/24/stories/2007052414831300.htm

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Open up Calcutta Stock Exchange: Lord Mayor of London

Staff Reporter

Says it will result in equity finance and higher degree of competition

London exchange showing "tremendous results" 20 years after it opened up

There will be a great deal of interest in it for companies based in the U.K., he says

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

John Stuttard, Lord Mayor of London (left), and British Deputy High Commissioner Simon Wilson in front of the Writers' Building in Kolkata on Wednesday.

KOLKATA: Financial services companies based in the United Kingdom are willing to participate in the regeneration and rejuvenation of financial centres such as the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE), John Stuttard, visiting Lord Mayor of the City of London, said here on Wednesday.

"If a request is made [for brokerages], there will be a great deal of interest in it for companies based in the U.K.," he said, while speaking to the media on the sidelines of a seminar titled `U.K. and India: Partners in Action.'

"Apart from equity finance, opening up the CSE will provide better know-how, skill, capital as well as a higher degree of competition," Mr. Stuttard said, adding that the London exchange was showing "tremendous results" 20 years after it had opened up. As the Lord Mayor, Mr. Stuttard acts as an ambassador for U.K.-based financial and business services.

Mr. Stuttard, who is accompanied by a 33-member business delegation, inaugurated a number of business seminars focusing on developing partnerships in financial services, education and training and maritime business with the Kolkata counterparts. An important area of cooperation would be in business and financial education, a subject that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee evinced interest in while meeting the Lord Mayor during the course of the day.

"There is shortage of professional skills throughout the world and availability of skilled persons is most important," Mr. Stuttard said.

As part of the initiative, the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) and the Leeds Business School (LBS) would be signing a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday which would enable 15 students pursuing the Post Graduate Programme for Executives course at IIMC to participate in a five-week international programme at LBS.

Mr. Stuttard, who also expressed his interest in working with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in the area of heritage tourism, met Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee during the day.