LONDON: India has emerged as Asia's second largest investor in Britain with an impressive 47 percent increase in foreign investment projects in the last fiscal, official statistics showed.

Twenty-eight Indian companies invested in Britain during 2003-04, bringing India Inc.'s presence in the country to 480 firms, said figures release by the United Kingdom Trade and Investment.

Japan was the top investing country from Asia with 52 projects, while China ranked lower than India with 23 projects, the data showed.

Overall, 811 investment projects from 40 countries set up operations in Britain in the last fiscal, up 14 percent from the previous year's figure of 709.

"The year 2003-04 continued to witness recognition by Indian companies that the UK is the ideal business investment location of choice in Europe, and second only to the U.S. globally," said Mark Dolan, deputy director, inward investment.

"India is now the second largest source of foreign direct investment into the UK from Asia in terms of projects and jobs generated, and ranks among the UK's top 10 foreign direct investment markets."