(Adnkronos) – The government is doing its utmost to help Italian companies compete successfully for a share of the “major” business opportunities on offer in “strategic” Turkmenistan’s energy, infrastructure, industrial, security and defence sectors, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
“The energy and infrastructure development programs of Turkmenistan open up major opportunities for Italian excellence,” the ministry wrote on X after foreign under-secretary Giorgio Silli opened the Italy-Turkmenistan Entrepreneurial Forum in Rome with Turkmenistan’s president Serdar Berdimuhamedov.
“We are working on new cooperation with industry, starting with textiles, agri-food, and the security sector,” the ministry post added.
The Italy-Turkmenistan Entrepreneurial Forum, “is another very important step towards bringing our countries closer together,” Silli said, according to a foreign ministry statement.
Opportunities are also opening up in Turkmenistan in the defence sector, Silli said.
“Several” deals were signed during the forum, notably in the textiles, energy and cybersecurity sectors, the foreign ministry statement noted
“The country’s development potential is very high, as demonstrated by the interest of our business community in Turkmenistan’s desire to diversify its economy,” Silli underlined.
Sillialso highlighted “the growing strategic importance of Central Asia for the global geopolitical balance, and the deep ties that unite it with Italy.”
Periodic consultations have been set up with the five Central Asian countries in the ’1+5′ format in a sign of the region’s strategic importance, Silli noted.
Over 150 institutional and business representatives from the two countries took part in the forum, which was organised by the foreign ministry, Italy’s foreign trade agency ICE and the Turkmen foreign ministry.
Berdimuhamedov is on a state visit to Italy and he and Silli also held talks on Friday with Italy’s head of state Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal presidential Palace followed by a lunch.
