| John Stuttard, the 679th Lord Mayor of London, stays in the majestic Mansion House in the heart of the world's premier financial centre and always wears a ceremonial badge of his office, a blue-ribboned medallion forged in 1802 with 257 diamonds on it. |
| As the head of the City of London Corporation, the local government body, his job is crucial but mundane. From providing the usual public services like garbage collection (his officials proudly say that the streets of the Square Mile, as the financial district is also known as, is washed seven times a day), he also lobbies the British government on behalf of the City and the entire financial services industry. |
| Stuttard, the head of a corporation which oversees the world's number one financial centre, is now headed for Mumbai (ranked 39th in the latest Global Financial Centres Index) as the leader of a 50-member high-powered delegation. The team, which will comprise the who's who of global financial services companies, will meet all economic ministers in India in the last week of May to start a dialogue on cooperation between the two cities in the areas of stock markets, public-private partnerships, education & training and corporate governance. |
| "Mumbai has the potential to become a great financial services destination in the world. The purpose of my visit is reciprocal. We want Indian companies to come more often to the UK. And India's financial hub can learn a lot from the steps we have taken to make London a great city," Stuttard said while talking to a group of visiting Indian journalists. |
| Mumbai has surely got quite a few things to learn from the head of the City. Look at his track record: the Square Mile leads the world in all five areas of competitiveness "� people, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness. The Lord Mayor said regulation is a decisive factor in the competitiveness of London and New York as too onerous a regulatory environment can directly affect the competitiveness of a financial centre. |
| The Lord Mayor "� a former Price Waterhouse head honcho "� also doesn't waste a chance to take a dig at his city's closet competitor. "While New York is governed by a rules-based regulatory regime that suits only lawyers and accountants, London's regulators operate a principles-based system that has an altogether lighter touch. And a light regulation isn't necessarily a soft regulation. Unlike the US, we have been able to avoid politicisation of the regulatory environment," he says. |
| Commenting on the criticism over the lenient tax treatment of non-domiciled residents who claim that their real home is elsewhere and thus avoid paying taxes, Stuttard said it's a needless controversy. "Foreigners pay 40 per cent tax on their income in London and are only spared from taxation on their overseas earnings," he said, adding some people are trying to make political capital out of this without realising that the highly skilled foreign nationals working in the City can be a hugely mobile population as they would leave at the slightest hint of unnecessary troubles. |
| Before his visit to Mumbai and Delhi, the Lord Mayor is careful about giving any advice to the Indian government and said he is coming to study the remarkable progress India has made. Pointing out that half of the property in London is owned by foreign firms, he said Mumbai could add to its lure if the government could look at reducing the entry barriers for foreign financial services companies. |
| (The correspondent's trip to London was sponsored by the British High Commission in New Delhi) |
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