The UK has stepped away from the list of partner countries at the ninth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit (VGS), a biennial investors' summit organised by Gujarat state government in India’s western state Gujarat, according to the media reports.
According to a report published by Indian daily, Daily News Analysis (DNA), the Gujarat state government hasn’t yet received any confirmation from the UK, instead they conveyed that they would not participate in the event as a partner country.
Gujarat state chief secretary Dr JN Singh who confirmed the latest move by the UK said that Britain is not participating in the event as a partner country and there is confirmation received from the concerned on the latest move.
"The United Kingdom was approached a couple of times by both the External Affairs Ministry of the Government of India and the Gujarat government separately for their confirmation, but their response was in negative. This could be because of the impending financial crisis after Brexit. However, we have not been informed about the reason for their refusal to become a partner country in the VGS again," DNA quoted a senior official in the Gujarat state government as saying on the condition of anonymity.
The UK is the second major country which stepped away from the team of partner countries after the US scaled down its presence at the ninth edition of Vibrant Gujarat earlier.
Meanwhile, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Thailand, the UAE and Uzbekistan will be partner countries at VGS 2019. Besides these list of countries, Australia and Poland have also confirmed that they would be partner countries in the mega event.
The state government is still on its efforts to attract more countries such as Africa to the event organised.
