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With bureaucratic red tape putting on hold many proposals announced a long time ago, the country's envoy to India Antonio Armellini today expressed his muted displeasure.
Addressing a gathering of state industrialists here, Armellini used the phrase — “we are still awaiting for the green signal”— not once but several times in his speech.
Referring to an agreement on setting up of a training and service centre for leather tanning, signed between Italian Trade Commission and the state government during Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s visit to Kolkata in February 2007, the envoy said: “The agreement said Italy will provide technical assistance while West Bengal infrastructure for the centre. But the state government is yet to give us the land, and we hope that it happens soon.”
Armellini said his country is willing to keep its part of the commitment. But “the later the project starts, greater will the delay in beginning cooperation,” he added. The leather centre was expected to come up at a cost of one million Euros (Rs 6.05 crore).
Another Italian proposal that has not seen the light of day since 1999 is 25-million-Euro project to upgrade the water distribution system in 16 townships of the state.
Armellini said the Italian government had finally cleared the project recently but the state government was yet to do the same. “We hope that we receive the clearance soon so that we can establish the implementation centre and get on with the project,” he added.
The office of the Italian Trade Commission, established in Kolkata in December, has set up a special cell to focus on agro-foods and agricultural machinery trade. The state contributes only 5 per cent of the total India-Italy bilateral trade that stood at $6.3 billion in 2006-07. “Our target is to double this figure in the next couple of years,” said the Italian Trade Commissioner in Kolkata, Vittorio Mecozzini.
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