Italy seriously considering increasing investment in India

Kolkata, Mar 3 (UNI) Italy is seriously considering to increase investment in India with a thrust on certain sectors.

"We are seriously looking into increasing Italian FDI to India.

There are certain sectors like agro-based industry, communication, urban development and infrastructure that we are interested to enter, " Italian Ambassador in India Antonio Armellini said.

Talking to reporters at a programme here, he said despite the improving bilateral economic ties, Italian foreign direct investment to India was not so encouraging.

" Unfortunately, the increase of FDI between India and Italy has not been as significant as the development of trade, " he said.

He said India had attracted about 65 billion dollar FDI between August 1991 and November 2007 of which only 560 million dollars came from Italy.

" Italy ranks at number 11 in the list of foreign investors in India, " he said.

The total Italian FDI in India between April 2006 and March 2007 was about 56 million dollars, while France's investment was 123 million dollars, Germany's 139 million dollars and the UK's 1.9 billion dollars.

Bilateral trade between India and Italy was 6.5 billion dollars in 2006-07 with an increase of 43 per cent compared to the previous year. A target has been set to increase it to ten billion dollars by the end of the current fiscal, he said.

UNI KDG SJC SS2045