Skip to main content

Berlusconi to lead business team to Pakistan


ROME: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced here on Wednesday that he planned to visit Pakistan this year at the head of a delegation of businessmen and entrepreneurs to explore possibilities of investment in key areas of economy, APP reported.

Mr Berlusconi made the announcement after a one-to-one meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari at which the latter urged the Italian prime minister to help Pakistan with investment and transfer of technology.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that six areas had been identified for investments by Italian businessmen. These are energy, marble quarrying and dressing, gemstone, leather value-addition and agriculture.

The president said at the meeting that Pakistan was at the centre of a huge market of nearly two billion people in parts of China, India and the entire Central Asia.

Mr Berlusconi said that Italy was aware of the strategic importance of Pakistan and was ready to help the country in all possible ways.

He asked Italian ambassador to Pakistan to work out firm proposals for collaboration in about a dozen critical areas.

Italy, he said, would continue its efforts to persuade European Union to sign a free trade agreement with Pakistan. President Zardari had told him that the sole purpose of his visit was to seek trade and not aid.

Mr Zardari also suggested that special consideration needed to be given to Pakistan considering that it was afflicted by the scourge of terrorism.

The Italian prime minister said that democracy in Pakistan should be strengthened by the world community. He said Italy was in line with the FoDP and would support all strategic and economic initiatives to help Pakistan.

He also announced two scholarships for bright Pakistani students for studies in higher education in the Friendship University set up by him in Milan.

President Zardari also held a meeting with Speaker of National Assembly Gian Franco Fani and discussed matters pertaining to exchange of parliamentary delegations.

The two sides observed that the level of political and economic cooperation between the two countries should be strengthened through exchanges of parliamentary delegations.

Read the full story here.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving comments. You are making this discussion richer and more beneficial to everyone. Do not hold back.

Popular posts from this blog

Siege - A Poem By Ahmad Faraz Against The Dictatorship Of Zia Ul Haq

Related Posts: 1.  Did Muhammad Ali Jinnah Want Pakistan To Be A Theocracy Or A Secular State? 2. The Relationship Between Khadim & Makhdoom In Pakistan 3. Battle for God; Battleground Pakistan - a time has finally come to call a spade a spade 4. Pakistan - Facing Contradictory Strategic Choices In An Uncertain Region 5. Pakistan, Islamic Terror & General Zia-Ul-Haq 6. Why Pakistan Army Must Allow The Democracy To Flourish In Pakistan & Why Pakistanis Must Give Democracy A Chance? 7. A new social contract in Pakistan between the Pakistani Federation and its components 8. Birth of Bangladesh / Secession of East Pakistan & The Sins of Our Fathers 9. Pakistan Army Must Not Intervene In The Current Crisis - Who To Blame For the Present Crisis in Pakistan ? 10. Balochistan - Troubles Of A Demographic Nature
Post a Comment
Read more

India: The Terrorists Within

A day after major Indian cities were placed on high alert following blasts in the IT city of Bangalore, as many as 17 blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, capital of the affluent western Indian state of Gujarat . Some 30 people were killed, some at hospitals where bombs were timed to go off when the injured from other blasts were being brought in. (Later, in Surat, a center for the world's diamond industry, a bomb was defused near a hospital and two cars packed with explosives were found in in the city's outskirts.) Investigators pointed fingers at the usual Islamist suspects: Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Bangladesh- based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI) and the indigenous Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). But even as the police searched for clues, the Ahmedabad attacks were owned up by a group calling itself the " Indian Mujahideen. " Several TV news stations received an email five minutes before the first blasts in Ahmedabad. The message repo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pakistan Army Must Not Intervene In The Current Crisis - Who To Blame For the Present Crisis in Pakistan ?

By Sikander Hayat Another day of agony and despair as Pakistanis live through a period of uncertainty but still I believe that army must not intervene in this crisis. These are the kind of circumstances when army need to show their resolve of not meddling in the political sphere of the country. No doubt that there will be people in the corridors of power and beyond who will be urging the army to step in and ‘save’ the country but let me tell you that country will only be saved if army stays away and let the politicians decide the future of the country, even if it means that there will be clashes on the streets of Islamabad. With free media in place, people are watching with open eyes the parts being played by each and every individual in this current saga. They know who is right and who is wrong and they will eventually decide who stays in power when the next general election comes. Who said that democracy was and orderly and pretty business ; it is anything but. Democracy ...
108 comments
Read more