Italy wants to develop joint ventures in the Russian Far East

Italian Ambassador to Russia Pasquale Terracciano. Photo: TASS

“Large Italian companies, such as Enel, are active in Russia. The president of the Russian-Italian Chamber of Commerce is also CEO of Mikro Kapital. So we are paying attention to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises,” Terracciano said.

“Many large companies have developed good relations with Russia, but we would also like to see more small and medium-sized Russian-Italian joint ventures. This is where the future lies,” he added.

The ambassador recalled that Italy had signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to support small and medium-sized joint ventures. “After a year and a half of working in Russia, I support the resumption of the operations of the Fund for Support of Small Businesses in Russia at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which were suspended due to sanctions,” Terracciano noted.

“I think this suspension is a mistake. We hope it will be restarted soon. In the meantime, we are working on it at the bilateral level, and we have signed a separate agreement on this,” he added.

“We hope that both large companies like Enel and small and medium-sized enterprises from Italy will launch joint ventures with Russia and will bring a European approach to business to the Russian Far East,” he concluded.

The Italian Ambassador to Russia stressed that it is not only the human resources or raw materials sectors that are attracting investment in joint ventures, and that extremely favorable conditions are being set in a number of places, including the Moscow region, to encourage Italian businesses to enter, TASS news agency added.

The Eastern Economic Forum takes place in Vladivostok from September 4 to 6. The forum is organized by the Roscongress Foundation.