In a significant development, the Foreign Minister of Italy assured Shri Sharma that major simplification will be made in the visa regime for business, students & researchers and official/diplomatic passport holders. He said that, in the new Schengen visa regime, flexibilities provided for the national visa regime will be explored fully to see for long term multiple entry visas for up to 3 years for these categories. He further said that he will also explore the possibility of using the certification from Industry Chambers from both the countries to certify the credentials for business visa.

In the bilateral meeting, Shri Sharma has informed that following the contraction of bilateral trade in 2009 as a result of the global economic downturn, the volume of trade has registered a healthy rebound, growing at over 25% during the first three quarters of 2010. “This is a positive trend and we look forward to working with the Italian side to build up on it. We could work towards a target of doubling our bilateral trade to € 12 billion ($ 17.5 billion) in the next five years”, Shri Sharma said.

Shri Sharma mentioned his counterpart that there is good scope for cooperation in sectors such as food processing, renewable energy, infrastructure and high technology and Italian industries can capitalise on their technical expertise and experience with the cost-effective production and the talent pool of human resource available in India to engage in mutually-beneficial partnerships.

During the interaction, Shri Sharma said: “We look forward to high level exchanges between our two countries since we believe these would contribute to deepening our ties and render our engagement comprehensive and forward looking”. He further informed that economic and commercial ties are an important facet of our bilateral relations and we want to see these develop to their full potential. “We look forward to Italian companies participating in India’s growth story and utilizing more fully the opportunities which are offered”, he added.

In a meeting with Mr. Paolo Romani, Italian Minister for Economic Development, in Rome yesterday, Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, has emphasised the need for closer cooperation in the field of infrastructure and highlighted 10 areas for furthering the cooperation viz., infrastructure, manufacturing, design & innovation, ICT, leather, textile, agro-processing, pharma, tourism, training and automobiles. Shri Sharma and his counterpart agreed to form a Joint Business Council (JBC) managed by FICCI from India and CONFINDUSTRIA from Italy. The JBC will meet once a year coinciding with the bilateral ministerial meeting.

On cooperation in the leather industry, Shri Sharma emphasized that this is important labour-intensive sector and added that, Italy has already good presence there and India is keenly interested in upgrading technology and skills. Both sides agreed to hold ‘Leather Show’ at Milan next year. Both the Ministers discussed about the importance of SMEs and agreed that training in this sector is important area and very soon industry chambers of both the countries will organise workshops and seminars on SMEs. Recognising the Italian strength in design, both the Ministers agreed for linkages between Italian Design Institute and National Institute of Design in India.

Shri Sharma will be travelling to Milan and he will be participating in a Workshop on ‘Italian Design’ tomorrow. Representatives from trade associations, design schools, universities and major companies would be attending. He will also be meeting the President of Lombardia Region, Mr. Formigoni.

India-Italy bilateral trade touched US $ 7.36 billion during January – November 2010 as compared to US $ 6.75 billion in 2009. Italy ranks 12th in FDI approvals during April, 2000 to November, 2010 and total FDI inflows from Italy are US $ 0.92 billion during this period.