Islamabad – Ms. Shazia Marri, MNA/Convener of the Pakistan-Italy Parliamentary Friendship Group (PFG) chaired the maiden meeting of the Group at the Parliament House. Besides the officers from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce, the meeting was also attended by the Ambassador of Italy to Pakistan as well as the Ambassador of Pakistan to Italy. The agenda was to discuss the prospects of enhancing bilateral and trade ties between the two countries.
The Ambassador of Italy to Pakistan, H.E. Marilina Armellin reaffirmed her country’s unwavering commitment to supporting Pakistan in mutually agreed priority sectors such as economic growth projects for rural development.
Ms. Marri emphasized that through cultural exchanges and youth development programs and necessary people-to-people linkages could also be enhanced. She highlighted the long visa processing times particularly for the student visas and underscored the need to prioritize student visas to minimize the visa processing times for the Pakistani students.
Ms. Shazia Marri also thanked the Italian Ambassador for their generous support to the flood victims in 2022. The Italian Ambassador responded that they were also airing a radio program on Climate related issues in order to raise awareness among the masses. The Italian Ambassador reaffirmed the commitment of her government towards enhancing economic cooperation with Pakistan through various projects. She also referred to Italy’s flagship initiative that aims to build a multi-professional olive and olive oil in Pakistan to enhance production and improve food security through technical assistance and training of relevant stakeholders. Talking about the development of Baluchistan, the Italian Ambassador informed that they were working on delivering olive oil based cosmetic products for the development of rural women of Baluchistan. The Italian government was ready to supply necessary equipment/ machinery for the olive oil extraction and dairy sector.
Ms. Marri outlined the need to expedite the process of finalizing the pending MoUs/Agreements between the two countries particularly the visa abolition agreement on diplomatic passports so that the officials of the two countries could frequently interact with each other without barriers of visas.
In order to translate the existing relations between Pakistan and Italy in to essential people-to-people contacts, Ms. Shazia Marri stressed on enhanced parliamentary linkages, youth engagement programs and sports diplomacy between the two countries.
Ms. Shazia Marri emphasized that Parliamentary Friendship group of both countries could significantly strengthen bilateral relations, fostering a stronger connection between the both countries.
