New Delhi (Sputnik) – Spokesperson of India’s External Affairs Ministry, Raveesh Kumar, said strengthening bilateral relations would be the main agenda of Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s upcoming visit to India. The visit comes a decade after the last visit of an Italian Prime Minister to India in February 2007.
"A 15-member Italian CEO delegation will be accompanying the official delegation. The interaction between the CEOs of the two countries is also being planned," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Italy PM Paolo Gentiloni to visit India on October 30 https://t.co/U8FbAkWiGw
— NewsStory (@NewsStoryIndia) 28 октября 2017 г.
Trade relations between India and Italy are currently not very impressive, with Italy being India’s 13th largest investor with cumulative investments worth $2.41 billion over the period April 2000 — June 2017. The top five sectors in India that attract Italian FDI are the automotive industry, trading, service sector, industrial machinery and food processing industry.
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Over 600 Italian companies are active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionary, insurance etc. A number of Indian companies are also present in Italy mainly in IT, electronics, engineering, automotive, pharmaceuticals, and railway sectors.
Italy is India’s 5th largest trading partner in the EU with bilateral trade at $8.79 billion in 2016-17. India’s exports to Italy are at $4.90 billion, while its imports are at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade balance of $1 billion in favor of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, India bilateral trade with Italy was $3.22 billion. Italy has the third largest Indian community (estimated at 180,000) after the UK and the Netherlands.
