UK Wants To Be The Global Tech Capital But What About Visas? Minister Dominic Johnson Responds – News18

The United Kingdom is going all out to promote itself as the big tech capital of the world and it wants to attract top tech talent from across the world for the same. But what about visas? Is the UK looking at easing the process of handing visas to people looking at moving to the UK for business, education or jobs?

On the sidelines of London Tech Week, Dominic Johnson, UK Minister of State for Business and Trade in an interaction with Debashis Sarkar, Editor, News18 Tech spoke about how the UK needs to further improve its visa process.

“In my view, we want to digitise everything and government services should be seamless. They should be extremely cost effective to operate for the consumer but also for the government itself. And we need a free flow of people coming from all over the world with the intellectual capital to support our science and technology ambitions. So, the short answer is Yes, improvements can and should be made,” said Johnson.

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“We’re introducing E-visas to certain countries. So, if you look at the Middle Eastern countries, I hope between February and March next year, we’re going to have a very straightforward E-visa gate system which will make travel much easier. And I know that in the free trade negotiations, the principle around trying to get the best talent from India to come to the UK to make their businesses a success is very much at the forefront of the discussions,” he stressed.

Johnson said that UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has a very “clear vision” when it comes to making Britain a science and technology superpower by 2030. While Sunak’s government is pitching itself as an attractive destination for talented people in the field of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductor manufacturing and life sciences among others, the UK is also realising the importance of investing in its own citizens to broaden its local STEM talent pool.

“… it is through intellectual capital that we’re going to survive as a nation into the future. So, rather than necessarily chasing the old occupations, it’s important that we train our populations in order to be able to contribute usefully to the new ones and that gives us strength, wealth and security,” said Johnson

“The prime minister is absolutely right that it is a race and is determined to make sure that we have the expertise trained in the UK and by doing that we’re putting a great deal of money into university research. I’m personally working on a number of projects to make sure that there’s funding for university spinouts. So, there are amazing ideas that can be taken and capitalised on, made commercial and at the same time we’re very aware of the need for Global Talent Britain,” he added.