From 31st of October to 3rd of November a Ministerial and Business Mission to India, comprizing more than 100 Italian companies, visited India. The Mission, led by the Italian Minister of Economic Development, Hon’ble Paolo Romani, was launched on the 31st of October in Delhi. Hon'ble Romani and his counterpart, Hon'ble Sharma, Minister for Commerce and Industry, opened the inaugural business forum, together with the Vice President of Confindustria, Paolo Zegna, and the President of FICCI , Harsh Mariwala. The two industrial associations signed a Memorandum of Understanding, confirming their willingness to cooperate for the enhancement of bilateral business ties, establishing a Joint Business Council as a key tool to address future challenges.
The Business Mission focused on areas jointly identified as strategic for the enhancement of bilateral economic relations: automotive, infrastructure, conventional and non-conventional energy, machinery. Beside B2B interactions, a seminar on infrastructure and energy was organized in collaboration with the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce. The objective of the seminar was to showcase the expertise and technological excellence of the Italian infrastructure industry, presenting to Indian companies and stakeholders the project of a “model city” – a modern, efficient, technological and eco-friendly ideal city.
On the 1st November a special initiative on SMEs took place, in partnership with FICCI and with the support of the Indian Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The seminar - Indian and Italian SMEs. A partnership for innovation: enhancing technology transfer access to credit and legal support - took place at FICCI headquarters, with the participation of Italian Minister for economic Development, Hon’ble Paolo Romani. Building upon the Italian experience on cluster development, the seminar discussed policies in support of SMEs clusters and ways to facilitate the match-making between India and Italian SMEs. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) was also involved to illustrate the achievements and best practices developed through a specific project in support of Indian SMEs, which has been running in the past five years, financed by the Government of Italy and implemented through UNIDO.
Minister Romani, while in Delhi, also had bilateral meetings with the Minister for Urban Development, Hon'ble Kamal Nath, and the Minister for Heavy Industry, Hon'ble Praful Patel.
The Chennai leg of the mission – organized in partnership with CII – started on 2nd November with an opening forum on Doing business in Tamil Nadu. The Minister of Industry of Tamil Nadu, Thiru Velumani addressed the event, followed by a panel discussion on “Scope for cooperation between Italian & India SMEs” – opened by the Executive Vice Chairman of Tamil Nadu Guidance and Investment Bureau, Mr M. Velmurugan.