Outsourcing brings two-way benefits: Straw

Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, expressed concern for Britons whose jobs are being outsourced but claimed that changing investment patterns may benefit Britain. He was speaking during his visit to Bangalore, the Indian location at the heart of the outsourcing move.

The Government has been coming under increasing pressure from a number of groups, including trades unions, to stem the tide of outsourcing jobs. But it still remains committed to what it sees as a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The Foreign Secretary claimed that the Government took seriously the knock-on effect of global investment, such as UK job losses, but countered this with the view that investments by overseas firms in Britain had also created jobs. Five thousand positions had been created in the UK's financial sector in 2002 alone, he said.

Mr Straw said that thousands of Bangalore locals had jobs processing British mortgages, bank transactions and insurance claims, or answering British telephone directory inquiries, with part of the rail inquiry phone service moving to Bangalore and Mumbai.

The Government has consistently veered away from any calls which relate to 'protectionism', and he reinforced this message by hoping that India would open up more to UK firms in various fields including banking and legal services, and Scotch whisky.