Manik Dey Ontrack's UK representative also claimed that the company goes through a rigorous procedure to ensure that work permit regulations are not contravened.

"We employ people locally and bring in experts from India. Our lawyers go through skills requirements on a case-by-case basis and if the skills are available in the local market we take people from there." he said.

Ontrack from its website states:

We share the vision of a borderless global marketplace enabled by the Internet and its convergence with other media.

And from the Shout99 interview with e-Commerce Minister, Stephen Timms, comes a clear statement that this Government will not put up barriers to such Indian companies.

"If there is an India company in the UK, which quite a lot of Indian IT companies now are, it is important that where they have a requirement for someone who has experience of that particular company, it should be possible for that person to come in to work for that company in the UK. We shouldn't be putting up unnecessary barriers to prevent that because if we were to try to do so, we would be moving in a protectionist direction which, in the end, is in no-one's interests."

He also said that “If we try and do that we'll just smother it and break the trading links and that it will be a very damaging step and it's certainly not something the Government is going to do”.

So what conclusions do I draw from this?

• The removal of the skill shortage list has not prevented overseas companies from bringing in overseas workers to work on clients sites. Now we see a situation where the client is using Ontrack employees rather than employing the worker direct. That also means that a portion of the IPR and experience will be retained by Ontrack to better build stronger relationships.

• Such companies are professional in outlook and will forge business relationships that could lead to more work of higher value and technical content, being carried out offshore.

• This activity is positively encouraged by the Government and they have stated they will not put up any protectionist barriers to prevent it.

The problem I have is not so much with the opportunities being offered to overseas companies - but the lack of similar opportunities being given to small, UK companies. It is the call for that 'level playing field' once again.

On the one hand we have a Government Minister encouraging Indian companies to invest in the UK and compete with local family owned businesses and at the same time another Minister is introducing measures such as Section 660A and IR35 to hit the UK company.

Back in 2000 Shout99 reported on an Indian company paying £12,000 to their employee who was working in the UK whilst billing the client £75,000. They could repatriate that profit back to India with the blessing of this Government whilst a UK freelancer paying himself the same amount first has to deal with IR35 and even if he passes that, now has to deal with Section 660A if he owns the company jointly with his or her partner.

Irrespective of our views on the benefits of of a borderless global marketplace enabled by the Internet and its convergence with other media, (and I am still making my mind up on this and would be grateful for some cogent arguments for and against) this Government needs to get "joined up" and bring the same level of commitment to encouraging UK companies to retrain, reskill and compete in this "borderless global marketplace" as it does in encouraging overseas companies to invest in the UK.

At the moment it is falling way short of doing this.

Regards

Andy White © Shout99.com 2003

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