New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) India and Italy Monday signed agreements on trade and hoped to double their bilateral trade and investments to $16 billion in the next seven years.
“We have the potential to more than double the bilateral trade in the next seven years. At $8 billion trade, it is not doing justice. It is time for our businesses to engage more,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said at a joint press conference with Italian Minister of Economic Development Claudio Scajola.

The agreement was signed between Invest India (a joint venture firm between the government and FICCI) and Italian National Agency for Inward Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development.

“I expect that the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will lead to more trade and investment between the two countries,” Sharma said earlier while addressing the Italian delegation in the national capital.

This is the largest ever business delegation from Italy to India.

Scajola said the current level of bilateral trade, which stands at $8 billion, was “insufficient” and invited a delegation to Italy next year to take bilateral trade forward.

“Besides energy, renewable energy, infrastructure, telecommunication, infrastructure, banking and insurance we are also interested in civil nuclear power cooperation with India. Italy is happy to transfer knowledge, technology and innovation.” he pointed out.

He also spoke of simplifying visa issues between the two countries.