India is one of the top ten destinations for Italian investments: Daniele Mancini

KOLKATA: Daniele Mancini, ambassador of Italy to India, has observed that according to National Exports Plan of Italy, a 150 billion-euro export market would be explored by the country and India is one of the top ten important destinations for Italian investments. While speaking about Indo-Italian trade prospects at Bharat Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata recently, Mancini stated that by 2015, trade volume with India will increase to 15 billion euros.

Infrastructure being a thrust area, Italian investors are not only exploring the first class cities of India, but also looking at Tier II and III cities in this country.

Various joint venture proposals have been sanctioned by the Italian government which aims to promote business in both India and Italy, with regular exchanges of delegations. SMEs being the important drivers of growth for India, he offered support of Italian experts for boosting skills and technology in India. He observed that SMEs instead of large corporations should be focused at to generate SME clusters which would eventually form SME districts.

He also observed that besides traditional industries, agro-food machineries, energy-efficient technologies and hitech technologies are important components for exports. To promote investments in and assistance to Indian industry, a special 'Desk -- Italia' has been established.

Dwelling on the Italian economy, he said more jobs have been created in Italy in public administration and export-driven sectors. Italy, thus, aims at promoting Indo-Italian dialogue between trade institutions and the private sector for overall reforms and development of trade and industry.

Both counties are rich in cultural heritage. In this context, he observed that there is an urgent need to promote Indian languages in Italy and vice-versa for better exchange and cooperation. He assured that he would work closely with Indian industries for close economic cooperation between India and Italy.