pressures? the creation of canary wharf, the expansion of office space in the square mile and the west end has helped to allow the rapid expansion of recent years. but of course london is an expensive city with high land and labour costs. so we have seen financial firms outsourcing functions like it support, systems development and hr both within the uk and europe and to india. that too seems likely to continue so further growth of trading and management in london may well not lead to proportionate growth in jobs. on current trends we might expect a greater concentration of high value, high skill jobs in london. conclusion so back to my question : wave or persistent stream? the answer is, as you will have spotted, both. readers of the bank ’ s financial stability report ( next edition due next month ) – or those that have read the financial news – will know that the financial markets have been buoyant recently ; in particular the premia for risks in the credit market are very low and profit growth and bonuses have been spectacular. some of this may well be the crest of a wave. however, for the reasons i have set out this afternoon, london is also benefiting from a longer lasting and a strong current. we may expect that cycle to turn at some stage – and london will be affected because of its international position. but there are good reasons to expect london to further enhance its position as a global financial centre in the long term. and that will have implications for the rest of the economy and the risks it faces. it will continue to affect the labour market, the housing market, and the distribution of wealth and income. and it will further sharpen the dependence of the british economy on wider international movements in financial markets. i plan to return to these implications in coming months. mckinsey global institute, mckinsey & company's economics research institute.

trading partners. a strong relationship with india will complement our rapidly growing links with china, and help us to realise the strategy of growing two external wings in the region, with the two emerging economic giants. on the part of india, since singapore is already nearly completely tariff free, major gains will be in investment and services. india ’ s economic reform and liberalisation has brought in foreign investments and benefited india for over a decade. similarly, a ceca that opens up more opportunities to investors from singapore, improves the business environment and strengthens the protection that their investments enjoy, will encourage more high - value investments to flow from singapore into india. with india ’ s growing strengths in services, a comprehensive agreement in services will open up new opportunities for indian companies in singapore and the region. strategically, a ceca will anchor india ’ s position in southeast asia. it will ensure that india joins in the opportunities that southeast asia offers, just as companies from the us, japan, and china are already doing. it will also spur other asean countries to expand their ties with india. this is exactly what happened with the us - singapore fta, and with the japan - singapore economic cooperation agreement. after singapore made these two agreements, other asean countries started to pursue similar arrangements with the us and japan. singapore is happy at this, as we will benefit when our neighbours too are promoting freer trade and investment flows. i hope our ceca negotiators will complete their work soon, and deliver a comprehensive and substantive agreement that both countries can be proud of. singapore as a launchpad from the business point of view, a ceca is the ideal platform for both countries to broaden and deepen bilateral co - operation, and advance our shared interests. singapore makes an excellent partner for indian companies embarking on a strategy of regionalisation or globalisation. because of our historical and cultural ties, indians are very comfortable in singapore ’ s social and corporate culture. singapore is a good base for indian companies to engage southeast and east asia. they can take full advantage of singapore ’ s trade and business networks in these growth markets, in particular china. singapore is also a major transportation, logistics and financial centre in asia. we welcome indian companies to make use of our international network of air, sea and telecommunications linkages, and tap the network and resources of 6, 000 mncs in singapore. already over 1, 000 indian companies are in singapore. in the last 3 years alone, over 150 indian companies have