Edoardo Bonatti
19 febbraio 2019
A remarkable week for anyone with even a passing interest in Italian-Russian relations. This February marks the beginning of a new year in the calendar of bilateral economic forums with two events standing put in particular.
The Russian Investment Forum took place in Sochi on February 14-15 sporting an impressive line-up of events touching on a broad variety of topics related to the future developments of the Russian economy and its investments strategies and flows. The Italian delegation was composed by the Commercial Advisor of the Italian Embassy in Moscow, Francesca Santoro, ICE Director Pier Paolo Celeste, the honorary consuls for the North Caucasus and Lipetsk, Pierpaolo Lodigiani and Vittorio Torrembini. The latter, who is also the vice president of GIM Unimpresa – an association of Italian businesses in Russia, spoke about Italy and Russia relations on the sidelines of the forum. According to Torrembini “trade between Italy and Russia is improving. [The year] 2018 was a very hard, difficult year in this sense. At the beginning of 2019 positive signals appeared, we are now on the path to raising imports and restoring investments. So, we feel calmer than we did last year.” He also noted how traditional Made in Italy sectors, such as the agricultural one or the sector of construction materials, still hold potential for significant improvements. Torrembini also noted the growing interest, in Russia, among Italian companies that want to invest there.
In Italy, the “Conoscere Eurasia” Foundation, chaired by Banca Intesa Russia president, Antonio Fallico, resumed its series of meetings aimed to promote better cooperation between the two countries. The III Italian-Russian seminar, “Italy-Russia: the art of innovation”, took place over the same days of the Russian Investment Forum between Milan and Genoa. The event saw the participation of Russian ambassador in Italy Sergey Razov, among many Italian national and regional politicians, as well Italian and Russian entrepreneurs. The seminar, which followed a round-table format, concerned itself with themes such as industrial technologies innovation efforts and opportunities and infrastructure and tourism business prospects.
Investorvisa.it is offering to its customers the best investment opportunities in Italian start-ups and companies. Russian entrepreneurs and patrons willing to invest or donate in Italy can apply for an Italian investor visa, with investments starting from 500,000 euros for start-ups and 1,000,000 euros for companies and donations. Investorvisa.it also broadcasted a web conference explicitly thought for a Russian audience to explain in depth the norms regulating the visa application process and its tax benefits.
Sources: Associazione Conoscere Eurasia, UrduPoint
