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, e.