Prime Minister of Italy to visit India on Monday

The last visit of the Italian Prime Minister to India was in February 2007.

Coming after a gap of more than a decade, the visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries.

According to DGFT data, Italy is India’s 5th largest trading partner in the EU with a 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 favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion," read a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

A 15-member Italian CEO delegation will be accompanying the official delegation. Interaction between the CEOs of the two countries is also being planned.

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.

According to DIPP data, Italy is the 13th largest investor in India with cumulative investments worth US$ 2.41 billion over the period April 2000 - June 2017. The top five sectors in India that attract Italian FDI are automotive industry, trading, service sector, industrial machinery and food processing industry.

In the EU, Italy has the third largest presence of Indian community (estimated at 180,000) after the UK and the Netherlands.

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