Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is in Italy on an official visit. Today he met with Carlo Ferro, President of the Italian Trade Agency (ICE). The meeting was attended by ICE CEO and General Director Roberto Luongo.

The Prime Minister highlighted the meeting with the ICE executives in the context of economic cooperation development prospects. He hailed the high-level political dialogue between Armenia and Italy and the good dynamics of economic interaction in 2019, as evidenced by Italian companies’ broader involvement in our country, the growth in bilateral trade turnover, as well as the launch of Yerevan-Milan-Rome flights from January 2020 that may contribute to the development of tourism and business ties.

Welcoming the Armenian Prime Minister’s visit, Carlo Ferro said the Italian side keen to develop business partnerships with Armenia. He hailed the recent growth in business transactions and went on to assure of Italy’s readiness to discuss opportunities for joint initiatives. He introduced ICE’s activities, noting that the agency is called to promote the international operations of Italian companies. Highly appreciative of the results obtained during the business forums held in Yerevan in June and in Milan yesterday, Carlo Ferro suggested capitalizing on their outcomes.

The interlocutors described as quite promising the prospects of interaction in tourism, hotel business, agriculture, and agro-tourism. Views were exchanged on the implementation schemes.

Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized that his government seeks to create a European standards-compliant economic and legislative environment in Armenia, as well as to provide for free and unrestricted access to the Eurasian market. He presented the efforts being taken to this end.

Thankful for the Italian side’s readiness of cooperation, Nikol Pashinyan asked Carlo Ferro to present Armenia’s business opportunities to Italian investors and invited them to visit Armenia in order to get a first-hand view of our country and its opportunities.

Both sides highlighted the exchange of know-how among SMEs involved in tourism. Agreement was reached to continue the discussion on the future plans and specific programs between the Italian Trade Agency and the Armenian agencies concerned.

Following the meeting, Prime Minister Pashinyan gave an interview to the Italian Corriere della Sera daily.

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The Italian Trade Agency is a governmental agency that supports the business development of Italian companies abroad and promotes the attraction of foreign investment in Italy.