‘Re-shoring’ key to West’s economic recovery: Cameron

FE Team | Published: January 25, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

LONDON, Jan 24 (AFP): British Prime Minister David Cameron was on Friday to insist that the "re-shoring" of jobs from countries such as India and China could be a key factor in spurring European economic growth.
Cameron is due to tell the World Economic Forum being held in the Swiss town of Davos that Britain hopes to be at the forefront of attempts to bring back jobs that have moved East in recent years due to wage pressures.
Britain has recently seen thousands of jobs shifted to low-cost Asian rivals, including the outsourcing to Indian call centres of many large firms' customer service departments.
"For years the West has been written off," Cameron is expected to tell delegates, according to extracts released by his Downing Street office.
"People say that we are facing some sort of inevitable decline.
"Whether it's the shift from manufacturing to services or the transfer from manual jobs to machines, the end point is the same dystopian vision -- the East wins while the West loses; and the workers lose while the machines win.
"I don't believe it has to be this way."
He will accept that globalisation presents "huge challenges" to western economies, but that jobs could start returning as Asian wages rise.