Italian companies are scouting for markets in India for sale of products like farm implements and machinery and food processing technology. Italy too is planning to boost its exports of a number of food products in which it is competitive.
A strong business delegation lead by the Italian Trade Commissioner, Glancarlo Lamio is also seeking cooperation with India in biotechnology and nano-technology.
“We want to expand business between the two countries by way of boosting bilateral trade and investment. Our companies have updated technologies in agriculture and livestock sector and are ready for investments in joint ventures along with Indian companies,” said Lamio.
Italy’s competitive international positioning in biotechnology is much stronger than usually believed, said Leonardo Santi, president of National Committee for Biosafety, Biotechnology and Life Sciences. He said that the report – Biotechnology in Italy-2007, Strategic and Financial Analysis – by Blossom Association Assobiotec – was in many respect very exciting.
There are 222 companies in Italy engaged in R&D and generate 4 billion euros in revenue, out of which 4,083 million euros are from sales of biotechnological product-licensing. These biotech companies had invested 1.3 billion euros in 2005.
Out of the 222 biotech companies, 62 of them work in healthcare, 39 in animal husbandry and veterinary applications, 17 in industrial and environmental fields and 13 in bioinformatics.
Itlalian biotechnology programmes are governed by the biotechnology policies of the European Commission. Europe is slow in adopting transgenic crops in agriculture due to the mounting public opinion against the genetically modified (GM) crops and animals. When question as to whether Italy would cooperate with India in developing GM crops and animals, Santi said: “We can work out such an agreement with the Indian government or biotech companies. We have the expertise in the field. Our main expertise is in pharma biotechnology.”