Asserting that the West cannot be "starry-eyed" about globalisation, British Prime Minister David Cameron today said Europe should capitalise on opportunities to bring back millions of jobs from low cost nations like India.
He debunked perceptions that the West is facing an inevitable decline, saying "it is the same dystopian vision that the East wins while the West loses; the workers lose while the machines win".
Participating in the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meet, Cameron cautioned that the West cannot afford to be "starry eyed" about globalisation.
According to him, there is the emerging trend of re-shoring -- where some jobs that were once offshored are coming back -- from East to West.
Cameron said Britain was determined to capitalise on its economic reforms and open markets to be a "reshore nation".
Some companies are planning to shift manufacturing jobs from other countries to Britain and the employee costs are also becoming competitive, he added.
"There is a chance for Britain to become the re-shore nation. Europe needs to act now to seize the opportunities of re-shoring," he said and added that a major driver of this trend would be the development of shale gas.
Shale gas is 'flooring' US energy prices with billions of dollars of energy cost savings predicted over the next decade, he added.
Cameron also said that it is time to bring the benefits of globalisation home so that it is felt by hard-working people in terms of security, stability and peace of mind.
For re-shoring of jobs to happen, Cameron said it is important to uphold the core values of liberal democracy, including the rule of law, freedom of speech and freedom of the media, property rights and accountable institutions.
Cameron highlighted a survey of small and medium-sized businesses, which found that one in ten brought back to Britain some production in the past year, twice as many as outsourced in the opposite direction.
He gave examples like Hornby, a toy train manufacturer which is relocating some production from India back to Britain.
