Italy Inc on a 360 degree mission

Leading business houses like Fiat, Alitalia, Perfetti, Lotto and Lombardini are amongst some 280 Italian companies visiting India to scout for investment and trade opportunities in food processing, textiles, information technologies, leather, education and infrastructure sectors.

Top executives like Giorgia Zappa, general manager of Finmeccanica, John Elkann, vice president of Fiat, Roberto Colaninno, president of Piaggio, Giuseppe Castelli, vice-president of Perfetti, Andrea Tomat, president and CEO of Lotto Shoes and Georgia Callegari of Alitalia are all in India to seek strategic business alliances at the Italy-India Business Week being jointly organised by Italian Trade Commission, CII and Ficci.

The 600-member trade delegation, which is part of the Italian President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi's state visit, is said be "360 degree mission" with greater emphasis on promoting the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

"The delegation will have a 360-degree approach and will look at all the sectors but greater focus will be on the SMEs to boost trade figures," Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, president of Confidustria said.

"We see an investment opportunity of 1.8 million euros and will examine various sectors to boost investment figures," Montezemolo said.

The company heads of Piaggio, Perfetti and Finmeccanica will be visiting other cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad to visit various companies, while the Fiat chief is expected to explore possibilities of bringing new variants into the Indian market.

Ferrari officials are also expected to visit some Indian auto companies. "India may have Ferrari in next few years," a Confidustria official said.

Italian government is also looking at the financial sector of India. Maurizio Sella, president of Italian Banking Association is here to study the Indian market.

"At present, there are restrictions on FDI (foreign direct investment) and voting rights are only 10 per cent. With some relaxations, Italian banks may look at partnering with India," Sella said.

Representatives of the Italian universities are also planning to introduce several student-exchange programmes in India in academic programmes as well as textiles and industrial designing courses.

Apart from this, the food wing of Ficci and Consorzio Sistema Italia Export (CSIE) will be entering into an agreement to look into the feasibility of setting up food parks all over India.

There will around 800 business meetings and the Italian President will have separate business meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.