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RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir will co-chair with his Italian counterpart Angelino Alfano a joint commission meeting between the two countries in Rome on Dec. 4, Italian Ambassador Luca Ferrari said here on Monday. A high-profile meeting of Saudi and Italian businessmen will also be organized on the sidelines of the meeting.
Al-Jubeir will visit Italy from Dec. 4 to attend the joint commission meeting, and to hold talks with top Italian officials. “The joint commission meeting will enable both countries to comprehensively review bilateral cooperation in defense, economic, archaeology, tourism and cultural spheres and enhance business exchanges within the framework of the Saudi Vision 2030,” said Ferrari.
“About 100 leading Saudi companies will be represented by their chairmen or chief executives in the business meeting,” he added. Ferrari was speaking to newsmen after formally inaugurating the Italian food festival at Lulu hypermarket here on Monday evening.
He said that the Italian companies could play a major role in the development of Neom city, especially in the area of robotics and information technology. “In fact, among the areas where Italy sees the most promise are robotics and automation, a fantastic industry with more than 400 companies,” said the diplomat, while referring to robots’ components supplied by Italian companies to China and many other countries.
Referring to the tie-up between Italy and Lulu, the ambassador pointed out that “Lulu has planned to open 20 hypermarkets in Italy.”
“This partnership with Lulu will help Italy to boost its exports, especially agri-sector exports, to different countries as Lulu has a strong global network of departmental stores and hypermarkets,” said the envoy.
He said that the agri-food sector represents 30 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) in Italy. In fact, the Italian economy is also doing pretty well, and it advanced 1.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2017, above 1.5 percent in the previous period, preliminary estimates showed.