By IANS,
Kolkata : Inviting joint ventures and investment from India, the Italian envoy Thursday said bilateral trade is likely to nearly double to $15 billion by 2015.
“It’s high time we took our bilateral trade to the next level. Its time for joint ventures and investments. Like India is an attractive invest destination for us, I hope Italy will be the same for Indian investors,” Italian Ambassador Daniele Mancini said here.
Participating in a Bharat Chamber of Commerce organised business seminar here, Mancini said the bilateral trade with India will go up to $15 billion by 2015 from the current $8.5 billion.
“As regards our trade with India is concerned, there are so many avenues yet to be explored. We need to connect better than what we are doing now. The need is creation of joint ventures.
“Italian investment in India is 2.5 billion euros (approx $3.25 bn), which is 10 times more than Indian investment in our country. I sincerely hope Indian investors would express more interest in Italy,” said Mancini.
He also said both countries needed to shift the focus from bigger cities to smaller towns and concentrate more on the SME sector.
“Italy so far has been focusing more on its strengths like food, furniture and fashion. But it’s time we focused more on other sectors like renewable energy, construction etc.,” said Mancini.