Indian-origin Vadera to be UK's representative to G-20

Britain's Indian-origin business minister Shriti Vadera, who is set to step down, will take up next month her "incredibly important" new role as the UK's representative to G-20 and work in the cabinet office unpaid.

According to prime minister Gordon Brown, Vadera will act as a liaison between British presidency of the G-20 this year and the South Koreans, who take up the post next year.

He said Vadera will work in the cabinet office unpaid. Baroness Vadera will take up her new assignment next month, media reports said. However, the exact date on which
she will resign from her current post was not immediately known.
    
The prime minister, who was with Vadera in New York yesterday before travelling to Pittsburgh for the G20 meeting, told reporters that her new role was "incredibly important". "I went to her and said, 'This is the job for you,'" he said.

Vadera in her new role will, however, keep an office in Whitehall and remain in close contact with the prime minister. She began working for him in 1999 and has, along with Ed Balls, been regarded as Brown's closest confidante on economic matters.
    
Brown thanked her for her "dedicated work". "In her new role Shriti will significantly strengthen the UK's engagement with the G-20," he said.

"The G20 is an increasingly important global group. The previous year has shown the vital importance of working together to deliver jobs, growth and stability," Brown said and described Vadera as "one of the architects of our international economic policy."

Vadera's departure from her current post reflects the growing importance of the G-20 in running the world economy, but is not seen as the start of a permanent G20 secretaryship.
    
She will leave her job at G-20 once France takes up the grouping's presidency in 2011. Her posting means she will not be at Brown's side at the general election scheduled in April next year.

Vadera, a former merchant banker, was instrumental in crafting the prime minister's response to the banking crisis a year ago - one of Brown's few high points in recent times. She has been central to Brown's economic plans during the financial downturn.
    
Lord Davies, the former banker ennobled by Brown, will take on her responsibilities.