It was informed in the Lok Sabha today that State Bank of India (SBI) has, on the 26th June, 2009, signed a Cooperation Agreement with Banca Popolare Di Vicenza (BPV), an Italian bank.

Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in a written reply to a question raised in the Lower House of the Parliament said that the agreement has been reached on a non-exclusive basis.

He said that Bilateral agreements by banks with their correspondents enhance business flow through them to the mutual benefit of the concerned banks and their customers.

It may be mentioned here that BPV bank is predominantly concentrated in the north Italian district of Vicenza having a large concentration of units specialising in engineering, textiles, clothing, leather, tanning, gold jewellery, food processing industries, oil and Gas equipment and Defence equipment sector, which also forms bulk of the imports from Italy to India. Many of these units bank with BPV.

It is this northern Italy where Sonia was born in a place called Ovassanjo, 80 km away from Turin.

With the signing of this agreement, the Minister said, SBI would be better placed to service the importers/ exporters with a direct link to their bankers.

According to the sources in the Government of India Italy is India's fourth largest trading partner in the European Union. Government officials said that as a rapidly developing nation with a fast growing economy, India is in need of the latest industrial and technical expertise, especially in the engineering, food processing, infrastructure, biotechnology, automotive and information sectors - sectors in which Italy has an established record of excellence.

There is a growing interest from the Italian economy in India, which can be gauged from the fact that the Italian government nominated India as Focus Country for 2007. #