Eurasia Workshop begins with focus on agro-food and export

(AGI) Rome, June 21 - The Eurasia Workshop 2015, aimed atbuilding a bridge between the companies of Central Italy andChina and ASEAN countries, will start on Monday at Rome'sChamber of Commerce, on Piazza di Pietra. The Workshop,now at its second edition, is promoted and sponsored byUnindustria Lazio, Fondazione Terzo Pilastro, AGI and theRegional Council of Lazio, with the active collaboration of theForeign Ministry. The Asia Trading Project Agency is incharge of the organisation. The sectors dealt with by theWorkshop are essentially four: agro-food exports, attractinginvestments, developing infrastructures and establishing acollaboration between urban areas. It is a multi-yearnetworking project which is giving tangible results. Thisyear's edition will be attended by three official delegationsfrom the cities of Tianjin and Chongqing and from the ChineseAgro-food Chamber, with the aim of favouring Italian exportsand joint actions fostering the transfer of technology andknow-how to Asia. A delegation from Yunnan is due to arrive inRome on July 4 in order to meet with representatives ofinstitutions and the industries working in the food productionchain, and in the sectors of technology and logistics. These are also the direct outcome of the Rome-Chongqing directline opened in May thanks to the initiative of the ItalianConsul in Chongqing, Sergio Maffettone. However theWorkshop will not only deal with China. It will also beattended by Lim Hong Hin, Deputy Secretary General of theASEAN, with the intention of promoting the extended ASEANCommon Market, which counts 600 million potential consumers andwhich plans to remove all internal customs barriers by 2015.Another important speech will by Saby Mitra, of the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB), which is due to make an internationalcall for bids for Asian development and infrastructuralprojects over the next three years. Italy is a member of theADB and Italian companies are entitled to participate in thecall for bids of the ADB and also of the Asian InfrastructuresBank. Indonesian businessman Peter Gontha, presently theAmbassador of Indonesia to Poland, will illustrate theIndonesian government's infrastructure plan and the ways offinancing it. Emmanuele Emanuele, the president of theFondazione Terzo Pilastro and a sponsor of the EurasiaWorkshop, will instead talk on cultural cooperation as the wayof establishing new international relations, launching aprogramme along the ancient Silk Roads. Zhu Zhemin, CEO forEurope of Genertec (China General Technology Group), willillustrate the principles and objectives driving Asianinvestments in Italy and Genertec's actions to facilitate them. Luigi Campitelli, director of International Affairs ofLazio Innova (Regional Agency) and Andrea Canapa, director ofthe Rome-based Italy-China Foundation, will give an overview ofthe collaboration experiences with the cities of Tianjin andChongqing and possible future developments. (AGI) . .