India, Italy have huge opportunities to boost economic ties: Piyush Goyal

There are huge opportunities for increasing cooperation in areas like tourism, design, digital world, services, goods and education between India and Italy to boost economic ties, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

He said that the large size of the domestic market, availability of talent pool and the world of opportunity that India provides can help strengthen business ties between the two countries.

''India offers probably the largest business opportunities available anywhere in the world as we progress from USD 3-trillion economy today to a USD 10-trillion economy in ten years and towards USD 30-trillion economy in 20-odd years and to a USD 50-trillion economy, which I believe we all are committed to, particularly when we see that we still are at very, very initial stages of development in the country,'' Goyal said at the India-Italy business round-table with Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio.

The Italian foreign minister said that both the countries are experiencing a dynamic economic cooperation.

Many Italian companies in their long-term strategy consider India as a key country whose market will drive growth on a global scale, the Italian minister said.

He informed that over 600 Italian companies have established their presence in India and they have employed over 50,000 local staff with a global turnover of 5 billion euro.

''Italy and India will organise a tech summit on energy transition and green economy in November. We aim at creating an institutional framework for the strategic cooperation launched by our two prime ministers in Rome in October 2021,'' Maio said.

The summit, he said, will provide a platform to intensify exchange of ideas, policy dialogues, business to business meetings and interactions of CEOs.

He added that both the countries can focus on projects of common interest in areas like innovation, mobility, green transition and connectivity.

The economic repercussions of the current crisis in Ukraine will not decrease engagement between the two nations, he added.

The bilateral trade, he said, has reached over 10 billion euro in 2020-21.

Later the commerce ministry in a statement said that Goyal and Maio during their bilateral meeting discussed issues like India-EU free trade agreement negotiations, cooperation in the framework of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) and resumption of direct commercial flights.

''Goyal suggested evolving and expanding the fast-track mechanism established between India and Italy to focus on enhancing economic cooperation and harnessing bilateral trade and investment potential to establish complementarities across focus sectors,'' it said.

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