The Hindu Business Line : Italy keen on food processing tie-ups

Kolkata, Nov 27 Italy has evinced interest in forging a closer relationship with India in general and West Bengal in particular in the arena of food processing. A high-level delegation from Italy is set to visit India next year to explore the possibility of increased bilateral co-operation in food processing.

Stating this during an interface with members of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry here on Tuesday, Mr Bruno Campria, Consul General of Italy in Kolkata, said that besides food processing, other areas where greater bilateral co-operation was possible were leather, information and communications technology, multimedia and fashion.

Mr Campria said that on December 10, a delegation representing different universities in Italy would hold a road show-cum-workshop here to attract Indian students to take up multimedia courses in Italy. The selected students would be offered scholarships and provided opportunities to take up internship programmes with Italian companies.

FDI flows

According to him, Indo-Italian economic co-operation has been more in terms of bilateral trade rather than FDI in either country. He attributed this to lack of awareness of the business potential in either country and called for greater dissemination of information through trade commissions and chambers of commerce.

There was hardly any Indian FDI in Italy during January-June 2007. In the corresponding period of 2006, Indian FDI in Italy stood at €0.2 million. Italian FDI in India, too, went down from € 55.1 million in January-June 2006 to €23.2 million in January-June 2007, he said.

During January-June 2007, Indian exports to Italy stood at €1,763 million, up from €1,432 million in the corresponding period of 2006.

More Stories on : Foods & Food Processing | Foreign Trade | West Bengal

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page