Revealing this at the 32nd annual general meeting of the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, N K Nayar, president, said that Fiat, which is setting up a plant in Pune, had initiated efforts to associate with small and medium scale companies there to develop ancillary units.

Fiat's investment is the largest ever industrial endeavour attempted in India by an Italian company. Maharashtra is also the preferred destination for a large number of Italian companies and currently accounts for the bulk of Italian investments in the country, Nayar said.

Bilateral trade between the two countries was Rs 75 billion in 1997-98, up 10 per cent from the previous year. Indian exports to Italy were also going up and were 20 per cent higher thelast year over the year before.

Italy's investments for the period from July 1991 to April 1998 amounted to Rs 25 billion making it fourteenth largest investor in India and the third largest among the European countries, Nayar said.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi reiterated the state government's commitment to maintain Maharashtra as the top choice for setting up industries. There was a healthy competition among all states to attract big investments and he was glad that out of 288 investment proposals from Italy 46 were slated for Maharashtra.

He said the power situation in the state was among the best compared to the rest of the country. The government was also undertaking a Rs 450 crore pilot project to supply quality power to 10 districts in the state, he added.

Touching on the 38 projects that were offered at the last "Advantage Maharashtra" convention, he said 14 were taking shape while the others had failed to materialize due various glitches.

The Italian ambassador toIndia, Gaetano Zucconi termed India an island of stability in the uncertain Asian environment. He said India had the potential to one of the great powers of the world. Greatness did not come from possessing weapons of mass destruction but from social, economic and political development, Zucconi added.