An economic mission from Italy’s Friuli Venezia Giulia region is scheduled to visit Iran from January 9 to 13.
Friuli Venezia Giulia is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with a special statute. The capital is Trieste, Italian news agency AGI reported.
The mission is led by the region’s president, Debora Serracchiani, who said she intends to “lay the basis for new partnerships with government and financial stakeholders in Iran to be ready, despite the tricky situation in the Middle East, for when the restrictive measures still in place are permanently annulled”.
Serracchiani is eager to link an economic dialogue to one of prospects, concerning possible new partnerships in science and technology, for the transfer of knowhow to the business system, of which Iran seems very aware.
“This was confirmed in November by contacts between our excellent regional research sector and the leaders of one of the largest universities in Iran, the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, which was followed by the mission of the rector of the University of Trieste, Maurizio Fermeglia, in September 2015, again to the Iranian capital, with [Education] Minister Stefania Giannini,” she said.
The visit comes as an earlier AGI report noted that Italy is ready to take its agrofood industry to Iran in February with a delegation of companies led by Italian Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina.
“We have scheduled an agrofood mission to Iran in February following the new relationship opened with this country and the mission led by Carlo Calenda, the deputy minister for economic development, last November,” Martina was quoted as saying.
The Iran-Italy Business Forum was held in Tehran in late November. It was attended by Italian deputy minister for economic development, Carlo Calenda, who headed a 370-strong delegation, including representatives of 178 Italian companies, 20 associations and 12 banking groups.
The mission spent two days in Tehran and held 700 meetings with Iranian officials and firms to spur cooperation on different fronts and explore joint trade investment opportunities.
In 2006, Italy was Tehran’s number one European trade partner. About €7 billion in bilateral trade in 2011–before the sanctions were imposed–nosedived to slightly above €1 billion, according to Italian Minister of Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi.
Guidi, along with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Paolo Gentiloni, headed a delegation of Italian business leaders to Iran in early August with the aim of “regaining Italy’s pre-sanctions stature in the Iranian economy”, in Gentiloni’s words.
