LAHORE: Italy`s ambassador to Pakistan Ms Marilina Armellin says the establishment of the office of trade attaché in the embassy for the first time in last 75 years will help boost bilateral trade and investment relationships between the two countries.

The top Italian diplomat in Pakistan, who took over her assignment here only a few weeks back, told Dawn during her first visit to Lahore that now the Italian embassy has a dedicated office, trade personnel, and financial resources to promote bilateral business ties with Pakistan.

Ms Armellin said one of her first objectives is to `further bolster our bilateral relationships, which are already very cordialfor the last 75 years when this country was born.

Our new embassy building in Islamabad is a tangible sign of our commitment to this country as it is the first construction Italy has made abroad in 70 years.

`And of course there`s a lot to do on trade. We have a vantage point there as we can harness the potential of the large Pakistani community living in Italy, one of the largest Pakistani communities in the European Union. We are talking about 300,000 people. They contribute greatly to our society as there are workers, entrepreneurs, students and researchers, and, you know, we can count on this capital of friendship to make Pakistan a better known place (for trade and investment) to our companies and business community in Italy.

She said what we have now mostly is trade with Pakistan as both nations have very compatible economic systems because Italy is oneof the top manufacturers and exporters of machinery textile machinery, agricultural and smart irrigation systems. `This is what your companies need here.

On direct Italian investment in Pakistan, Ms Armellin said both countries should step up efforts to make Pakistan more known to Italian investors who have interest towards Asia and also towards Pakistan, which is less known in Italy than other Asian economies, for boosting direct investment from Italy. `Thus we need to make aneffort in this respect. Then improving the business environment here would also help attract investment from my country and elsewhere.

She went on: `Pm a newcomer here and may not have a full picture. But I met a number of Italian businesses before coming here and they told me that Pakistan has great potential but there`s policy uncertainty and bureaucratic red tape that prevent smooth investment in here. Then in 2024 we are in a postpoll transition period and in such conditions the business community waits for and sees how the economic agenda of the new government would develop.

The envoy was quite appreciative of efforts made by Pakistan to improve labour rights, human rights and governance as required by the EU trade concessions under its GSPPlus programme.

`Pakistan has made considerable improvements in 27 core UN conventions under the GSP plus trade concessions from the EU. There`s improvement in human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and good governance. I take it as aprocessthateach countryneeds to follow and not just Pakistan. So we supported Pakistan and concessions for Pakistan trade as these give access to Pakistan exporters to EU markets. We want these trade concessions for Pakistan to continue as these are beneficial for this country, its economy and its people.

Ms Armellin said: `We are all waiting for formation of a new government and would continue to work with it on challenges that we talked about before. We are waiting to see the agenda of the new coalition government as the loan negotiations with the IMF that we believe would begin over the next few weeks.

`The agenda of the new minority government will be very important because it may have to agree on certain measures (with other parties for their support). It is a very important moment of transition for this country and we hope that the new government will perform not only on the economic front but also for the benefit of the people. Her advice for the incoming government is to improve the trade and economic environment, and invest heavily in education.

Speaking about Italy`s support for Pakistan after the 2022 floods, she said Italy had stepped up when the flood hit. `We also have a long history of collaboration on environmental issues as in Italy we also face the same problems of soil erosion, melting glaciers, floods and earthquakes.

So we relate with you very much. So we have invested in projects here that are important to fight climate change and improve agriculture and child nutrition and resilient production for affected communities. An Italian organisation is also mapping all the glaciers of Pakistan that are the biggest source of fresh water.

The report will hopefully be released in April.