Italy-Russia Trade Growing Due To Mutual Business Interests - Italian Business Association

Rome and Moscow have increased the bilateral trade, with interest in Russia growing for "Made in Italy" products, while Italian companies increasingly invest in Russian economy, Vittorio Torrembini, the vice president of GIM Unimpresa, an association of Italian businesses in Russia, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Russian Investment Forum on Friday.

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th February, 2019) Rome and Moscow have increased the bilateral trade, with interest in Russia growing for "Made in Italy" products, while Italian companies increasingly invest in Russian economy, Vittorio Torrembini, the vice president of GIM Unimpresa, an association of Italian businesses in Russia, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Russian Investment Forum on Friday.

"Trade between Italy and Russia is improving. [The year] 2018 was a very hard, difficult year in this sense. In the beginning of 2019 positive signals appeared, we are now on the path to raising imports and restoring investments. So, we feel calmer than we did last year," Torrembini said.

According to Torrembini, traditional sectors, such as "Made in Italy" still retain the biggest potential.

"In this sector there have been significant improvements. These are also the agricultural sector, the sector of construction materials and food production.

Moreover, there is a growing interest [in Russia] among Italian companies that want to invest in Russia," Torrembini said.

Torrembini added that companies specializing in processing city waste had been increasingly in demand in Russia and had increased their presence in the country.

Earlier in February, Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergey Razov told Sputnik that Russia and Italy have many shared interests, and their relations continue developing in spite of damage done by Western anti-Russia policies. According to Razov, the bilateral trade grew by 20.8 percent in 2017, reaching $23.9 billion, and continued to increase in 2018, with the trade surpassing $25 billion. Italy is Russia's fifth biggest foreign trade partner and third biggest of all the EU states.

The Russian Investment Forum is taking place on February 14-15 in the resort city of Sochi. Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is an official media partner of the event.