Manufacturing is the pillar of Indo-Italian Bilateral Alliance; New Investments can Impetus Global Solutions

Vincenzo de Luca
Vincenzo de Luca
  • One of the largest supplier of Machinery Equipment; Italy can play a significant role in strengthening Make in India 
  • Promoting Ease of Doing Business in the country, India undertook numerous policy reforms in recent times
  • IICCI with the patronage of the Italian Embassy in India is organising a series of the webinar to promote economical ties between both countries

Addressing the participants in the first edition of the virtual conference series on “MAKE in INDIA with ITALY – Italian Technologies, Machinery & Know-How for the Indian Manufacturing Growth”, His Excellency Vincenzo de Luca, Ambassador of the Italian Embassy said, “I strongly believe, manufacturing is the pillar of this bilateral alliance. Italy’s direct and indirect exports to India far exceeds other countries. Since Italy also exports to Netherland, Luxemburg and Switzerland, the integration of the Indo-Italian system will benefit investments and manufacturing of food processing, automotive, and leather processing machine tools.” 

Amit Roy, Priya Rawat & Claudio Maffioletti

Indo Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IICCI) with the patronage from the Embassy of Italy in India is organizing a series of webinars to strengthen the economic ties, boost partnerships and investments between both countries. The inaugural session was held on 16th February 2021, where 250 participants from both countries attended. Mr Luca further added, “Italy is the first European country to promote Industry 4.0, as a key element of a recovery plan in Italy and for the global economies. India has ample scope for digitalized manufacturing comprises machine learning, 3D printing, robotics, data collection which coalesce into industry 4.0- the future of manufacturing.” 

Chairing the opening as well as the Italian session Claudio Maffioletti, CEO & Secretary General of IICCI, set the ground for the conference, introduced the speakers and panellists. The conference was fragmented into 4 parts – opening remarks, Italian session, Indian session and conclusion. The speakers in the panel covered various aspects of the technology need of an Indian manufacturer, India as an investor, proposing joint ventures for commercial collaboration, opportunities in the global market, etc. Amit Roy, President of IICCI, the first speaker of the opening session with his powerful deliverance, said that he feels India to be an emerging industrialist country with simultaneous growth and estimated the nation to achieve growth by 11.5 % in 2021. He commented that this is the right time to invest in India. 

Giving the participants a picture about the Changing Indian perspectives on Manufacturing & Investment, Priya Rawat, Vice President of Invest India, presented innovative initiates taken by the Government of India in the last couple of years, improving a sustained way of doing business in India. She informed that India not only was able to climb up the global ladder on “Ease of Doing Business”, but using digital channels and advanced technologies developing a portal that can address all the concerns of investors who would like to invest in the world’s single largest market for next 100 years. “It’s estimated, India to achieve the third largest nominal in the term for GDP in 2030 by acquiring 10 trillion”, said Ms Rawat. Lastly, Ms Rawat assured Invest India to be the best business investment agency in the world.

Mario Maggiani, Alfredo Mariotti, Marco Ferioli, Carlo de Simona

The first session was dedicated to the Italian side of the trade, where presentations were delivered by representatives of Industry Associations, Government Agencies aiming to facilitate trade and investment among the two countries. Alfredo Mariotti, General Manager of UCIMU, Mario Maggiani, General Manager of AMAPLAST, Marco Ferioli, Head of SACE Hongkong & APAC, and Carlo de Simona, Servizia External Relations, SIMEST SpA, spoke about the opportunities in technological collaborations, investment opportunities. The detailed presentations of each speaker can be obtained by writing to Nilesh Joshi of IICCI at Resources | India Italy.

Vinnie Mehta, Arvind Mehta, Anbu Varthan, Hari Shanker

The Indian and concluding session was chaired by Hari Shanker, Managing Editor of Machine Maker, who shared his experience working with IICCI for coming out with a special edition on Made in Italy for Indian Manufacturing during April 2019. He introduced and invited Vinnie Mehta, Director General of Automotive Components Manufacturers Association in India (ACMA), Anbu Varathan, Director General of Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA), and Arvind Mehta, Chairman of Governing Council, All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA). The trio emphasised the importance of setting up local manufacturing facilities in India by Italian companies and assured all the required support to facilitate the investments.

Giacomo Bigolin & Ramesh Gehaney

In the concluding session Giacomo Bigolin, Managing Director of BBM Heavy Machinery India spoke about giving enough time to develop and build a robust system for Italian entrepreneurs if planning to invest in India. Ramesh Gehanay, Executive Director of Endurance Technologies, shared his experience as a satisfied customer of Italian machines, which are running at their facilities for more than 20 years now. Endurance Technologies with more than 27 manufacturing locations worldwide, is one of the leading automotive component manufacturers in India. Claudio Maffioletti, CEO & Secretary General of IICCI thanked all participants, speakers, panellists and partners for their support in organising the conference, and informed that the next edition of the webinar series would be scheduled during April 2021.

UCIMU, SACE, AMAPLAST, SIMEST from Italy, Invest India, ACMA, AIPMA, IMTMA and Machine Maker from India partnered with IICCI to organise this webinar. Italy the second largest economy in Europe is a manufacturing hub and provides advanced technological solutions to the industrial sector globally. The partnership with Italy may lead India to become a manufacturing and export powerhouse, which aligns with the Make in India initiative promoted by the Indian Government.