The Italian embassy is endeavouring to build a more diversified investment portfolio and it has pitched Pakistan’s priority sectors for investment in a bid to grow the bilateral investment portfolio at a sustainable pace, he added.
He highlighted that workers’ remittances from Italy to Pakistan soared 92% in August 2021 compared to the same month of last year, making Italy the largest contributor to the remittances from Europe.
“Keeping in view the growth trend over the past 12 months, Italy is expected to join the billion-dollar club in terms of remittances to Pakistan, which can help bridge the current account gap being faced by Islamabad,” he stated.
“Italy is Pakistan’s eighth largest export market,” he said.
Exports to Italy registered 64% growth on a year-on-year basis in August 2021, mainly led by value-added sectors such as garments, leather products, home textiles and footwear, he noted.
Citing that exports to Italy from Pakistan reached an all-time high of $786 million in FY21, he foresaw a larger figure this year.
The envoy announced that a delegation of Pakistan consisting of 40 businessmen from the leather sector would visit Italy in the coming week.
“They will meet buyers and investors and visit some state-of-the-art leather manufacturing facilities in Italy,” he said.
