An Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Simon Coveney launched the Italian Irish Chamber of Commerce (IICC) last week in Dublin.

The event was attended by both Irish and Italian business leaders who gathered together to celebrate the commercial partnership between the two countries.

The volume of bilateral trade between Ireland and Italy reached €14.9billion at the end of 2018 an increase of €1billion from 2017. Ireland currently runs a trade surplus with Italy, which has increased slightly over the last five years. 

IICC say the range of products and services that are traded between the two nations is considerable – from medical devices to dairy products, telecommunications equipment to transport equipment. 

In 2018, the surplus of goods exported over imports was €2,056million and a surplus of €2,897 million of services exported. In 2018, Italy was ranked as the ninth largest market worldwide for the volume of Irish exports. In 2022, the Italian telecommunication services market is forecast to have a volume of 124.4 million users, an increase of 5.9% since 2017.

Speaking last week, the Italian Ambassador to Ireland, Paolo Serpi said, "As the world’s ninth largest economy, Italy is well known for its creative and innovative businesses, a large and competitive agricultural sector with the world’s largest wine production, and for its influential and high-quality automobile, machinery, food, design and fashion industry."

He added, "I am gratified to see this valuable partnership between Italy and Ireland gathering momentum and closer ties being forged. The Irish Italian Chamber of Commerce provides a worthwhile resource for Italian businesses wishing to come to Ireland or doing business here and it is encouraging to see such strong support from the Irish government for this important initiative."

Source: www.businessworld.ie