The Italian government said they are seeing a robust collaboration with the ASEAN region, particularly the Philippines, in pursuing the country’s green initiatives to fight climate change’s ill effects.
“There is great potential to exploit together. The relationship between the ASEAN area and Italy has been improving constantly and very rapidly in the past five years. In this respect, the Philippines, with its very high growth rate, represents one of the best opportunities for Italy as a nation,” said Mauro Battocchi, the Director General, Directorate-General for Country Promotion, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy said in an ambush interview during the Manila High-Level Dialogue on ASEAN Italy Economic Relations at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City on Wednesday.
During presentations at the forum, the Italian representative stressed that the ASEAN-Italy trade exchange is worth more than $20 billion, of which 9.7 billion are represented by Italian exports to ASEAN and $12 billion refer to ASEAN exports to Italy.
In the last five years, overall commercial trade between Italy and ASEAN has grown by 52 percent, more than the United Kingdom (13%), Germany (12.8%) and France (12.7%), highlighting the great dynamism of Italy-ASEAN economic relations.
Moreover, it was said that among ASEAN countries, the Philippines represents 8.3 percent of Italian exports to the area and 2.7 percent of imports to Italy.
“Italy is exporting technology, especially green technology, especially at this stage of fighting climate change. I believe in the coming years, we are going to work hard together with the Asian Development Bank and the Italian agencies that are in charge of promoting business, trade, and investments. We will work very hard to make this potential turn into reality,” Battocchi added.
Battochi stressed that for the Philippines, the potential investments that Italian businesses can pour are in the fields of Italian goods, machinery applied to agriculture, and exports in Italian consumer goods such as food, fashion, textile, design, and furniture.
“These are the elements that defined Italy as a lifestyle reference point worldwide. I think, as Filipinos open up to the world, they are more interested in the Italian consumer goods that we can export. Both in machinery and consumer goods, we can work together as we have a complementarity in these segments,” according to Battocchi.
Impressive trade relations
For her part, Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba, representing Trade Secretary Cristina Aldeguer-Roque, said the ASEAN, where the Philippines belongs, is becoming a sweet spot to the global economy, as ASEAN’s combined gross domestic product of ASEAN is now more than $3 Trillion and projected to become the fourth largest economy by 2030, a testament to the power of regional cooperation.
Concerning Italian exports to ASEAN, Aldaba said it reached 11 billion Euros, while ASEAN exports to Italy reached 9 billion Euros, proving that the exchange underscores the mutual benefits of our growing economic ties.
Aldaba stated that the three important areas that can shape the future of ASEAN-Italy relations include strengthening economic cooperation through shared expertise, particularly in the field of high-quality manufacturing, green technology, and sustainable infrastructure; promoting innovation through technological development, and deepening the two countries' cultural and creative exchange.