25 Ottobre 2012
Dear Prime Minister, It's a great pleasure and privilege to be here today, for the second time in six months, and to note how the friendship that unites our two countries has continued to grow over the years.
Italy and Israel are bound by a special relationship and by collaborations spanning all fields. Today, we are setting the stage to further intensify our partnership in many sectors, while opening new ones.
This year’s Summit can be summarised by three main objectives: growth, science and culture.
On the economic front we are launching a more structured approach to facilitate the efforts of start-ups and venture capitals, by bridging the gap between our two countries with an important MoU.
Israel has been defined the “Start-Up Nation” for its remarkable technological development, and Italy is also focusing its efforts in this field. Given our respective expertise, we are, here as in many other respects, complementary, with the opportunity to benefit from important synergies in the innovation sector.
A number of important businesses from our two countries have invested in the other, in a broad range of sectors (from telecommunications to high-tech and constructions), but we need to further boost these figures. And I have been told that there are many other investment opportunities, for example in the infrastructure sector, including the important rail link from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean
In this regard the Industrial, Scientific and Technological Agreement represents an important tool, enriched through the possibility of financing collaborations between Universities and Centres of Research, responding to a long-felt request of the scientific and business communities of both countries. The implementation of the agreement has turned Italy into Israel’s first partner in Europe (and second partner in the world) in terms of the number of scientific activities/projects with Israel. The 11 projects selected this year by the Joint Commission are promising, spanning from medicine and biotechnology to information technology and agriculture.
